A Worthless ‘Peace Plan’ for Israel and Palestine

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

The Trump administration is pressing ahead with its worthless “peace plan” for Israel and Palestine:

Asked by the newspaper’s editor, Walid Abu-Zalaf, about an Abbas spokesman’s dismissal of Mr. Kushner’s trip as a “waste of time” that was “bound to fail,” Mr. Kushner said he believed Palestinian leaders were “saying those things because they are scared we will release our peace plan and the Palestinian people will actually like it.”

There is no chance that Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza will like anything the Trump administration has to offer. That shouldn’t have to be said, but I suppose it has to be when the press is talking about this farce of a “peace plan” as if it were a serious proposal. The U.S. has never been an “honest broker” between the Israelis and Palestinians, and Trump has made a point of emphasizing that this administration is extremely biased against the latter. From moving the US embassy to Jerusalem over Palestinian objections to covering for Israeli crimes against protesters in Gaza, the Trump administration has been very clear that it couldn’t care less what any Palestinians think about anything.

The administration wants credit for feigning interest in the “peace process,” but everyone can see that Kushner’s proposal has no merit. Much as the administration has done with Iran, they are making an insulting “offer” that they know will be rejected so that they can blame someone else for their failure. It is a cynical way to claim that they have given diplomacy a chance while making no effort to do the real work and take the political risks that real diplomacy requires.

Daniel Larison is a senior editor at The American Conservative, where he also keeps a solo blog. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and is a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Dallas. Follow him on Twitter. This article is reprinted from The American Conservative with permission.