A Candid Take on the Middle East Peace Plan

Last week, The White House announced President Donald Trump’s vision for a ‘comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.’ The White House refers to it as a peace to prosperity plan but it has its shortcomings, namely that the Palestinians weren’t involved in its drafting and rejected the plan almost as soon as it was announced.  In fact, the Palestinian Authority was so outraged that it moved on Saturday to sever ties with both the U.S. and Israel.

The European Union, too, expressed ‘major reservations’ about the proposal, saying it doesn’t meet “internationally agreed parameters” on important issues including the location of borders.  The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell said he remains committed to a “negotiated two-State solution, based on 1967 lines, with equivalent land swaps, as may be agreed between the parties, with the State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable State of Palestine, living side by side in peace, security and mutual recognition.”