https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/us-seeking-to-separate-gaza-w-bank-palestine-leader/1178090
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/u...already-happening-israel-palestine-1066744202
The Palestinian presidency on Monday said the U.S. was seeking to permanently separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank on the pretext of “humanitarian” intervention, going on to stress its total rejection of a backchannel U.S. peace plan known as the “Deal of the Century”.
“The Palestinian people and leadership will not recognize the legitimacy of any U.S. or Israeli plan that involves separating the Gaza Strip from the West Bank under the guise of ‘humanitarian assistance’,” presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a Monday statement.
“These schemes,” the statement added, “aim to undermine the Palestinian national project by transforming the Gaza situation into a strictly humanitarian issue”.
Israeli daily Haaretz quoted unnamed sources as saying that the U.S. administration was trying to convince the oil-rich Gulf States to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in economic projects in the blockaded Gaza Strip and in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula.
According to the newspaper, details of the U.S. peace plan will likely be unveiled this week by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's advisor and son-in-law, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s advisor on Israel.
Both men are expected to begin a tour of the region -- that will include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel -- sometime later this week.
According to remarks by Palestinian officials, Washington seeks to impose a political solution that would include the establishment of a truncated Palestinian state in Gaza while the West Bank would be granted limited autonomy.
Under such a plan, they say, Israel would remain in control of the entire city of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian territories have remained tense since the U.S. relocated its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last month.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem -- occupied by Israel since 1967 -- as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/u...already-happening-israel-palestine-1066744202
There are mounting signals that Donald Trump’s much-delayed Middle East peace plan – billed as the “deal of the century” – is about to be unveiled.
Even though Trump’s officials have given away nothing publicly, the plan’s contours are already evident, according to analysts.
They note that Israel has already started implementing the deal – entrenching “apartheid” rule over Palestinians – while Washington has spent the past six months dragging its heels on publishing the document.
“Netanyahu has simply got on with deepening his hold on the West Bank and East Jerusalem – and he knows the Americans aren’t going to stand in his way,” said Michel Warschawski, an Israeli analyst and head of the Alternative Information Centre in Jerusalem.
“He will be given free rein to do what he likes, whether they publish the plan or, in the end, it never sees the light of day,” he told Middle East Eye.
Eran Etzion, a former Israeli foreign ministry official, agreed: “Israel has a much freer hand than it did in the past. It feels confident enough to continue its existing policies, knowing Trump won’t stand in the way.”
Netanyahu ‘the winner’
According to the latest reports, the Americans may present their plan within days, soon after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Yossi Alpher, a former aide to Ehud Barak during his premiership in the late 90s, said it was clear Netanyahu was being “kept in the loop” by Trump officials. He told MEE: “He is being apprised of what is coming. There won’t be any surprises for him.”
