The US plans to announce its long-awaited ‘Deal of the Century’ after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a new government at the end of May or early June, according to political sources in Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump's full plan will be proposed and handed out to the Arab and Israeli parties simultaneously, based on leaks from Washington to right-wing political circles in Israel.
Only a few people have apparently had regular access to an input to the plan: Trump, his senior advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner’s aide Avi Berkowitz.
Sources added that the deal seems to talk about a Palestinian state of limited sovereignty on 90 percent of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some land captured by Israel in 1948 can be added to it. Further, Israeli forces will be deployed in critical zones in the West Bank.
The deal also includes an article that rejects to recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. It also offers to compensate Arab countries that agree to approve their presence. For example, refugees in Jordan are granted the nationality and the country receives USD40 billion to provide them land and housing.
Daniella Weiss, a leader in the far-right (partners to Netanyahu), said that a plan of an additional 1.5 million Jewish citizens will be proposed before the new government. "The Likud and the right have succeeded and now they have to get to work and expand the entire area,” Weiss added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed on Wednesday that the Trump administration will soon announce its ‘Deal of the Century’. However, he abstained from answering whether the administration endorses the two-state solution.
US Vice President Mike Pence, Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton are all kept up to date on the peace plan, but have kept a hands-off approach to it, in line with Kushner’s request, two officials said.
Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East envoy and now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the US team still has “a lot of work to do to make sure that Arab leaders aren’t surprised by what’s going to be presented, and they need to see it in writing, not verbally.”
