If a picture is worth a thousands words, then this picture from Palestinian protests on Wednesday says it all, regarding Zionist Israeli feelings about an independent Palestinian state, enshrined in the ‘deal of the century’ which was publicly rolled out on Tuesday.
Trump’s attempt to bribe Palestinian President Abbas to accept this ‘peace’ plan scam with $50 billion in Saudi and UAE money was apparently futile, and fell on deaf ears.
Immediately following the presentation of the deal on Tuesday, Abbas responded, saying “a thousand no’s” to the con of the century. “Trump, Jerusalem is not for sale. Our rights are not for sale. Your conspiracy deal will not pass."
“We will not bow and we will not surrender [...] We are united in the face of all the extermination plans that our people will reject.” (source)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had said on Monday that it was "nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause".
Trump’s assurance to the Palestinians, or more likely the western world, that “virtually every” Arab country “surrounding” them supported the deal, turned out to be a complete and total fabrication. There were in fact numerous countries which opposed and condemned the deal.
Lebanese speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri, described the deal as “a bribe to sell the rights, sovereignty, dignity, and Palestinian Arab lands with Arab money”.
“Lebanon and the Lebanese will not be false witnesses in the new death penalty against the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, including their right to return home,” he said.. “We will not accept, regardless of the conditions, to be an accomplice in the sale or exchange of these rights.”
Lebanese Hezbollah also strongly rejected the plan, calling it a “deal of shame” that would have never come to fruition without the “complicity and betrayal" of several Arab states.
Jordan also stands in opposition of the deal, warning against the “dangerous consequences” of the plan and of “annexation of Palestinian lands,” which is written into the deal.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement which “expressed its strong condemnation and absolute rejection of the ‘deal of the century’.”
Leader of the Yemeni Houthi government also denounced the deal, describing it as “blatant US aggression on Palestine".
“It is a deal funded by Saudi and the UAE to cement Israeli occupation.” - Mohammed Ali al-Houthi
Iran also strongly denounced the plan as the “treason of the century“ - “a deal between the Zionist regime and America.”
“The shameful peace plan imposed by America on the Palestinians is the treason of the century and doomed to fail." - Iranian Foreign Ministry
Among the strongest critics of the deal was Turkey, with various officials offering some of the harshest condemnations of all, calling it the country’s “red line.”
“This is an attempt to kill the two-state solution and a plan that aims to annex Palestinian territory by robbing it. [...] Jerusalem is our red line. We won't allow steps to legitimise Israel's occupation and oppression." - Turkish Foreign Minister
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the plan “will not serve peace and resolution.”
“This is a plan to ignore the rights of the Palestinians and legitimize Israel's occupation." - President Erdogan
The UN rejected the plan as a violation of international law and of UN treaties to which Israel is a party to, and even the Arab League immediately dismissed it.
According to Haaretz, “Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday that the first reading of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan indicates a great waste of legitimate rights of Palestinians.”
Oman, UAE, and Bahrain gave their tacit approval by sending ambassadors to the White House ceremony on Tuesday. Additionally, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar praised the US for its efforts and welcomed the possibility of peace, but stopped short of outright endorsing the deal. Qatar came close, saying it “welcomes” and “appreciates” the US efforts to achieve peace, but at the same time called for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders including East Jerusalem, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, neither of which is a part of the ‘deal of the century’. The Saudi Kingdom also released a statement saying it “renews its assertion” of support for the Palestinian people. It appears that the only Arab country openly casting its full support behind the deal is Egypt.
Notably, this deal has pushed Turkey, who is often seen as a tool of the Zionist and US foreign policy agenda in the region, into greater opposition to both Israel and the US. Not only has it solidified Turkish opposition to the Zionist occupation and goals, but has done the same to the Palestinian resistance as well.
On Tuesday,
In a rare show of unity, Palestinians from different political factions inside the Gaza Strip held a protest against US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century.” - MEE
Bitter political Palestinian rivals, Hamas and Fatah, along with the Popular Front for Liberation, came together to protest Trump’s betrayal of the century.
Meanwhile, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh “called on parties to put their differences aside and form a unified front,” Middle East Eye reported.
Ismail Radwan, a member of Hamas's political bureau in Gaza, speaking with Middle East Eye, expressed similar sentiments about uniting in the face of Israeli occupation to stop the ongoing oppression of Palestinians and denial of their fundamental rights, but added that: “The security coordination with the Israeli occupation must be stopped.”
It is no secret that the security collaboration between the Palestinian Authority (PA) under President Abbas and Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank has facilitated the Israeli oppression of Palestinians and expansion of illegal settlements under the Zionist leadership.
Ending such security coordination would indeed go a long way towards forming a successful unified front of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation responsible for perpetrating the endless cycle of Criminal expansionism, annexation and denial of Palestinian rights.
Thousands of Palestinians also turned out on Wednesday across the occupied West Bank to protest Trump’s deal.
At Wednesday's protests, Palestinians raised their national flags and chanted “Down with the deal of the century” and “Palestine is not for sale”. - MEE
As per usual for such Palestinian demonstrations, the protesters were met with violence by Israeli occupation forces, and dozens of protesters were injured by tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and reportedly several even by live fire. Others were arrested, and at least one youth was beaten in the process.
Immediately, without any delay whatsoever, and just as I predicted in my last post, the Palestinian refusal of this peace plan scam is being used to paint them as the ungrateful villains who seek only violence, who are yet again blowing a wonderful opportunity for peace - their biggest and best opportunity yet.
In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Jared Kushner lambasted the Palestinians for taking to the streets to protest instead of accepting such a “big opportunity.”
Jared Kushner is the author of the plan, Trump’s advisor, a very close family friend of Netanyahu, and is himself a Jewish Zionist.
“They have a perfect track record of blowing every opportunity they’ve had in their past,” Kushner said.
“Right now, what’s Palestinian leadership?” He asked. “What are they calling for? They’re calling for a day of rage. Who do you know that runs a state that when they don’t get what they want they call for a day of rage?”
Well, to answer the question, I know of at least one state who’s leaders call for not one day, but entire weeks and months of rage when they don’t get what they want, and that would be the United States. The US has a long track record of both calling for widespread protests to oust foreign leaders who don’t cooperate with their imperial foreign policy, as well as funding and arming militants and terrorists to actually wage violent uprisings and civil wars against them. Case in point: Libya, Syria, Venezuela, and currently Iran.
Kushner said the plan gives the Palestinians “a pathway to a state, a continuous territory and conditions where they can earn their way to their independence.”
Kushner also said the Palestinians look “foolish” for rejecting the proposal.
“The Palestinians rejected the plan before they saw it,” Kushner said. “They thought it wasn’t going to be as good as it was so I think they look quite foolish today. Also, one of the great ironies is they keep saying they want to be a state.”
The real irony is that Kushner, Trump and Netanyahu claim this deal actually gives the Palestinians the opportunity to have “an independent state of their own.”
Not only must the Palestinians “earn their way to independence” by meeting what Trump described as certain specific “conditions of statehood,” which I might add are absolutely absurd, but the notion that this deal offers any sort of “independent state” to the Palestinians is ridiculous.
First off, Kushner’s assertion that the deal promises a future state made up of “continuous territory” is a flat-out lie, as simply looking at the map released with the plan clearly indicates. And maybe the real reason it was rejected by the Palestinians is in fact because they actually read the plan, and saw just how absurd it was!
This future “independent state” of Palestine would be entirely demilitarized, so it will have no army, and it will be under full Israeli “security control.” This is a fancy way of saying the new state will remain under Israeli military occupation. It will therefore not have sovereignty over any of its ground, sea or airspace.
This future “independent state” would not be continuous. Its territory would consist of several isolated islands of West Bank territory separated by Israeli-annexed territory and joined by a network of roads. It would be joined to the Gaza Strip only by a tunnel, and would include two other tiny enclaves along the Egyptian border, both separated by more Israeli territory. It will be filled with Jewish settlements which Israel is to be given complete sovereignty over, connected to Israeli territory by Israeli-controlled access roads running through this “independent” Palestinian territory. There will also be several Israeli “strategic sites,” presumably military sites, within this “independent state.”
This future “independent state” will not have any control over any of its border crossings either, but those too will be under Israeli control.
The entire disjointed territory of this new state would amount to only one third of the entire illegally occupied West Bank, and would have no border with Jordan, but would rather be completely isolated within Israel and surrounded by Israeli territory. Every portion of the West Bank bordering Jordan is to be annexed by Israel according to the plan.
This future “independent state” will not be allowed to have relations or forge alliances with any other countries whatsoever, not even its ‘neighbors’. It will not have its own seaport. It will not have access to any major water sources in the West Bank, as these will all go to Israel; and it will have extremely limited fertile land to grow on, as the entire Jordan Valley, the most fertile region of the entire West Bank, will be annexed by Israel.
All of Jerusalem will be given to Israel in this plan, and the capitol of this future state will be a small village and refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem, outside the city. There is no ‘right of return’ given to Palestinian refugees either, though a number of Palestinian Israelis may be stripped of their Israeli citizenship and forcibly deported to the new Palestinian “state”. The plan also stipulates that the Palestinian refugee crisis must be solved outside of Israel, by any party other than the one party responsible for creating it in the first place!
But hey, at least the Palestinians will finally have an “independent state” of their own...
The deal simply seeks to legitimize the ongoing illegal Israeli settlement project and planned annexations in the West Bank. It serves as nothing but an official US approval of the current reality on the ground - the ongoing Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the West Bank and Gaza, including all the violations of UN treaties it has signed in relation to the Palestinian Territories - being put forth under the guise of a peace plan, meant to normalize these ongoing illegal Israeli actions.
If the deal is in essence nothing but an officiation of the changes effected by the Israelis across the West Bank, few of those changes would have been possible had the Palestinians of the West Bank been free to resist or at least protest. The crime committed by the Palestinian security agencies, in terms of shackling the Palestinians and facilitating the arrest and detention of their activists, is as heinous as the crime committed by the Israelis themselves.
It is therefore essential for the survival of Palestinian resistance in the face of brutal occupation, which is necessary for the preservation of Palestinians rights, that the security coordination between the PA and Israel be ended. It is not likely to happen, but the Palestinians must pressure Abbas anyway. One way or another they must find a leader who will stand up for their rights and not sellout the Palestinian People for bribes, political gain, or Israeli-sanctioned positions of power.
For decades, Israel has benefited not only from this close security coordination with the PA, but also from the many political division between various Palestinian parties which keep the resistance movement fractured and weak; including the bitter rivalry between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza and the historic division between Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank.
In his recent visit with Hamas leadership, Abbas did indicate that Gaza being disarmed is entirely off the table as an option. Which may be a step in the right direction towards closer ties and more unity in resistance against Israeli occupation, for Abbas has in the past called on Hamas do disarm. Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza generally refuse to cooperate with the PA in the West Bank because of its close security coordination with Israel. That Hamas officials are now calling on the PA to cut these ties as they call for greater unity, indicates that if Abbas was to do this then a strong and unified alliance could be established.
This new deal may in fact be so bad for the Palestinians that it is actually a blessing in disguise, as is has begun to push them towards finally putting their internal differences and political compromises with Israel completely aside in order to form one united front of resistance against the Zionist occupation.
They have no other option besides this, except to surrender and live as permanently subjugated second-class citizens under the racist and religiously supremacist apartheid Zionist rule of Israel in a permanently occupied state of Palestine.
The deal has openly showed the world what has been secretly known as the sad reality for years, that there will never be a valid two state solution accepted by Israel. The deal illuminates the dark truth that, contrary to the picture painted by Jared Kushner, it is in fact Israel and not the Palestinians who consistently hijack the peace process and reject every serious effort towards a lasting peace plan. Anyone not blinded by Zionist ideology can now easily recognize this, and indeed many have, such as US Senator Chris Murphy, who said in a tweet that “it’s no peace plan at all.”
“The unilateral annexation of the Jordan River valley and existing settlements, deemed illegal under US and international law, will set back the peace process decades. And it risks real violence and massive destabilization inside places like Jordan,” the Senator said.
Bernie Sanders was among those in Congress condemning the deal, who also recognized that this Israeli-backed ‘peace’ plan “will only perpetuate the conflict.”
Israel has never been willing to accept a valid two-state solution, and is not willing to recognize any truly independent Palestinian state between the river and the sea, no matter how much land Israel gets in return. They never have been, and never will be, regardless of what they claim, and the ‘independent’ Palestinian state proposed in this deal - the only such ‘independent state’ Israel is willing to recognize - proves this.
As David Hearst wrote on January 29:
No-one should underestimate the historic nature of the declaration that has just taken place. The two-state solution or the idea that a viable, contiguous Palestinian state can be created alongside a Jewish majority state is dead. It was dead long before the Oslo Accords.
...
The message of this map to Palestinians of whatever faction is now crystal clear. Forget your divisions, forget what happened between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza in 2007, cast aside claims of coups, and unite. Unite against an existential threat.
The Zionists have made their stance and only acceptable plan for the region clear for all to see, and it is non-negotiable: permanent occupation of all Palestinian Territories and subjugation of all Palestinians therein. And as can be seen, the US will be of no help in forging any sort of real peace deal, or pressuring Israel to recognize basic Palestinian rights or to cease their illegal settlement projects.
There is no path to a truly independent state being offered here, nor will there ever be. As Nikki Haley and President Trump have both said, this deal was the “last chance” the Palestinians would have at one.
The two-state solution is long dead. There is only one option left for regional peace and Palestinian freedom, and that is for a single state that recognizes the basic human rights of all, regardless of race, religion, or creed. It matters not if it is called Israel or Palestine. What matters is that Jews, Muslim, and Christians are all accepted as first-class citizens, and that Arabs, Europeans and Blacks are all treated with equal human dignity.
Since such equality and freedom is not recognized under current racist and supremacist Israeli apartheid laws - which oppress and persecute Arabs, Muslims, Christians and even anti-Zionist Jews alike - there remains only one viable option for lasting peace and freedom for all current residents of the land of Israel/Palestine.
Anti-Zionist Jews are treated as badly, if not worse than Palestinians, inside Israel. Their children are beaten. Their youth are imprisoned for refusing to join the military (Zionist occupation forces). Their Rabbis are “assassinated, arrested, and killed” for speaking the truth about Zionism; that it is both evil and an abomination in the eyes of God according to Judaism, and that it misrepresents itself as working on behalf of Judaism in order to “con the world” into supporting it.
As a Jewish Rabbi said on Tuesday at a protest of Trump’s deal in DC, the only real path to “ending the rivers of blood” is the peaceful dismantling of the “evil” Zionist state of Israel, and the establishment of a Free Palestine.
“The deal of the century will be when they remove, God help us, speedily and peacefully, this abhoration, this state of Israel entirely, that we may live in peace and harmony, as we had for 100s and 100s of years. [...] The only problem is this infection called Zionism. [...] God should help that it should end this occupation in its entirety; that is the deal of the century. [...] Let us bring an end to this endless river of bloodshed to both Palestinians and Jews alike.” - Anti-Zionist Jewish Rabbi, January 28, pleading with President Donald Trump to listen to the voices of anti-Zionist Jews in America and Jerusalem, and withdraw all support for Israel.
I couldn’t agree more. As Yousef Jabareen, a member of the Israeli Knesset from the Joint List recently said: “Now is the time for Jews and Arabs who value democracy and equality, to stand and work together against this dangerous plan."
Indeed, now is the only time, before it is too late. After all, it may soon become illegal to criticize Israel in any form, all around the world, just as Trump’s recent executive order has already affectively banned criticism of Israel on College campuses in the name of fighting anti-semitism.
The time is now. The international community must pressure Israel, and pressure the UN to pressure Israel, like never before. The BDS campaign is effective, as Israel’s volatile reaction to it demonstrates, and must be intensified.
The Arab nations should unite in defense of the Palestinian cause, though they are unlikely to do so for many reasons. However this deal looks to have pushed a few countries sitting on the fence in that direction, such as Turkey.
The time is now, and must be seized upon, before that time has run out, and the ethnic cleansing is complete.
“This is the first time since 1948 that all Palestinians can join together to do this. They have to seize this opportunity or wither away as a footnote in history.” - David Hearst