Netanyahu peace plan veto prolongs Gaza’s misery

https://arab.news/vc9ta

Those who were surprised by Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to reject outright US President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza should ask themselves why. Even the fact that it took the Israeli prime minister a week and a half to respond fits the pattern of his behavior — self-serving procrastination. With just over two months before the general election, his only calculation appears to be how to consolidate his electoral base and protect his personal interests. The interests of the country and its people do not even come second. It is not only the rejection of the second phase of Trump’s peace plan that should worry anyone who cares about the future of this conflict and the people affected by it. In his statement to the Israeli Cabinet at its weekly meeting, Netanyahu prefaced his rejection of the plan by vowing that “as long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise.” To add some more inflammatory flavor to his statement — his bread and butter at the best of times, and on steroids during election campaigns — he added: “Neither ‘Fatahstan’ nor ‘Hamastan’ (will be established).” By rejecting a two-state solution and ruling out the creation of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has defied not only the second phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan from September last year, but the plan in its entirety. Although the Trump proposal contained no cast-iron commitment to a Palestinian state, it clearly indicated conditions leading toward “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” Netanyahu has now said that this will not happen on his watch. Worse, by using inflammatory language and referring to Palestinian political movements........

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