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| Mideast Peace Plan to be Released on Tuesday, Trump Says | Mideast Peace Plan to be Released on Tuesday, Trump Says |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday he would release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan on Tuesday as he welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the White House for two days of meetings. | WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday he would release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan on Tuesday as he welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the White House for two days of meetings. |
| “Tomorrow at 12 o’clock, we’ll be announcing a plan,” Mr. Trump said, confirming reports that he would unveil a proposal, nearly three years in the making, that aims to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. | “Tomorrow at 12 o’clock, we’ll be announcing a plan,” Mr. Trump said, confirming reports that he would unveil a proposal, nearly three years in the making, that aims to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. |
| Speaking alongside Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump said that “it’s the closest we’ve ever come” to an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, an opinion almost unanimously rejected by analysts and foreign diplomats who see it as heavily weighted in favor of Israel. | Speaking alongside Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump said that “it’s the closest we’ve ever come” to an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, an opinion almost unanimously rejected by analysts and foreign diplomats who see it as heavily weighted in favor of Israel. |
| While Mr. Trump predicted “we will ultimately have the support of the Palestinians,” that seems a distant prospect. | |
| Many analysts say the Trump peace plan, developed under the oversight of the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is relevant mainly for its potential impact on Israel’s March 2 election, which will decide the fate of the embattled Mr. Netanyahu, and as a distraction from the Senate’s ongoing impeachment trial of Mr. Trump. | |
| Mr. Netanyahu’s opponent in that election, Benny Gantz, is also in Washington and met with Mr. Trump on Monday. He plans to return to Israel before Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu deliver public remarks together at the White House on Tuesday after describing the plan. | |
| Mr. Gantz’s allies have complained that the joint appearance inappropriately elevates Mr. Netanyahu, who has been a close Trump ally, over Mr. Gantz. | Mr. Gantz’s allies have complained that the joint appearance inappropriately elevates Mr. Netanyahu, who has been a close Trump ally, over Mr. Gantz. |
| Perhaps underscoring the point, Mr. Trump did not invite reporters into the meeting he held with Mr. Gantz shortly after Mr. Netanyahu’s visit. Official Israeli photographs posted online showed the president and Mr. Gantz shaking hands and smiling. | |
| Asked by reporters about hosting the two rivals in highly unusual back-to-back sessions, Mr. Trump professed neutrality but said he was impatient with Israel’s tangled politics, which have resulted in three national elections in the past year. | |
| “They’re two good competitors. They’re fighting it out,” Mr. Trump said with Mr. Netanyahu at his side. “I’ve been waiting now — this is my third election. We keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So, let’s go. What kind of a system is that?” | |
| The unveiling of the peace plan will occur on the same day Mr. Netanyahu’s bid for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on corruption charges gets underway in Israel, just five weeks before he faces Mr. Gantz in the election. | |
| The two are battling in Israel’s third election in a year after ballots in April and September ended inconclusively, with neither Mr. Netanyahu nor Mr. Gantz able to muster a majority government. | The two are battling in Israel’s third election in a year after ballots in April and September ended inconclusively, with neither Mr. Netanyahu nor Mr. Gantz able to muster a majority government. |
| “One can’t ignore the obvious domestic political context to everything that is going to happen in the next couple of days, both here in the United States and in Israel,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “In my view, that drives what is about to happen as much as Middle East peace may drive it.” | “One can’t ignore the obvious domestic political context to everything that is going to happen in the next couple of days, both here in the United States and in Israel,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “In my view, that drives what is about to happen as much as Middle East peace may drive it.” |
| Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the president on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu showered his host with flattery. | Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the president on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu showered his host with flattery. |
| “You’ve been the greatest man Israel had in the White House,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “I think tomorrow you can continue making history.” | “You’ve been the greatest man Israel had in the White House,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “I think tomorrow you can continue making history.” |
| The details of the peace plan are not known, but the proposal will most likely place both Mr. Netanyahu and his opponent in a quandary. | |
| It could force Mr. Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political future and his freedom — he is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — out of his risk-averse comfort zone and put his credibility with his supporters, and his legacy, on the line. | It could force Mr. Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political future and his freedom — he is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — out of his risk-averse comfort zone and put his credibility with his supporters, and his legacy, on the line. |
| Any direct or implicit green light from Washington for unilateral Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley and Jewish settlements on the West Bank is likely to increase the pressure on Mr. Netanyahu from his right-wing partners to move ahead immediately. | Any direct or implicit green light from Washington for unilateral Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley and Jewish settlements on the West Bank is likely to increase the pressure on Mr. Netanyahu from his right-wing partners to move ahead immediately. |
| “The time for talk is over — full sovereignty now,” Naftali Bennett, Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister and the leader of a right-wing party Mr. Netanyahu depends on for support, urged last week on Twitter. “Within two weeks we must impose sovereignty over all the settlements.” | “The time for talk is over — full sovereignty now,” Naftali Bennett, Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister and the leader of a right-wing party Mr. Netanyahu depends on for support, urged last week on Twitter. “Within two weeks we must impose sovereignty over all the settlements.” |
| Unilateral annexation, however, is not without risk, and something that Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, have avoided for decades. | Unilateral annexation, however, is not without risk, and something that Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, have avoided for decades. |
| For one thing, it could undermine Israel’s strategic peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt. It could also fuel Palestinian unrest or a violent reaction, costing lives on both sides. | For one thing, it could undermine Israel’s strategic peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt. It could also fuel Palestinian unrest or a violent reaction, costing lives on both sides. |
| For Mr. Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, embracing the plan could alienate his more left-leaning supporters and send them back to their more traditional political home, the left-wing Labor-Meretz alliance, tipping the electoral scale away from him. | |
| If Mr. Gantz rejects the plan or gives it a lukewarm reception, that could send his more right-leaning supporters back to Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud or other parties in the right-wing bloc, likewise snatching away the chance of a slim victory. | If Mr. Gantz rejects the plan or gives it a lukewarm reception, that could send his more right-leaning supporters back to Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud or other parties in the right-wing bloc, likewise snatching away the chance of a slim victory. |
| At a minimum, the peace plan will complicate Mr. Gantz’s efforts to focus Israeli voters’ attention on the cases against Mr. Netanyahu in hearings over the coming days about the prime minister’s request for immunity. | At a minimum, the peace plan will complicate Mr. Gantz’s efforts to focus Israeli voters’ attention on the cases against Mr. Netanyahu in hearings over the coming days about the prime minister’s request for immunity. |
| As for the weak and ailing Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, acceptance of the plan is impossible since it does not meet the most minimal of Palestinian demands. But refusal leaves his people divided between the West Bank and Gaza, with no state and no road map for the future. | As for the weak and ailing Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, acceptance of the plan is impossible since it does not meet the most minimal of Palestinian demands. But refusal leaves his people divided between the West Bank and Gaza, with no state and no road map for the future. |
| “It is nothing but a plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Muhammad Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said at a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday. | “It is nothing but a plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Muhammad Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said at a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday. |
| Mr. Trump sounded energized on Monday by the scale of the challenge before him. | |
| “I think it’s a fantastic thing if we can pull it off,” he said. “They say it’s probably the most difficult deal anywhere and of any kind of. In the business world, when I was back in the business world, when the deal was tough, people would jokingly refer to it as, ‘this is tougher than Israel and the Palestinians getting together.’” | |
| Mr. Trump also asserted of the plan that “many of the Arab nations have agreed to it. They like it. They think it’s great.” No Arab leader has publicly embraced the as-yet-unreleased plan, and Palestinian officials are hopeful that they will uniformly reject it. | |
| Mike Evans, an evangelical leader and Trump supporter who has met with Arab government officials, said that “even though many won’t say it publicly, quietly they are on board.” | |
| But Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal advocacy group J Street, said it was unlikely that the plan would win strong Arab support. | |
| “We don’t expect what we’re going to hear tomorrow to be an actual plan for peace,” said Mr. Ben-Ami, who supports greater Palestinian rights. “This is really an effort to shift longstanding U.S. policy into alignment with the hardest-right positions that Israel has ever taken on these issues.” | |
| “It’s not an effort to resolve this conflict, it is an effort to redefine what is the baseline of U.S. policy,” he added. | |
| Michael Crowley reported from Washington and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. David Halbfinger contributed reporting from Jerusalem. | Michael Crowley reported from Washington and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. David Halbfinger contributed reporting from Jerusalem. |