US official leading Israeli-Palestinian peace plan resigns
Jason Greenblatt, a top US adviser on Israel and one of the key figures in drafting Washington’s plan for Middle East peace, resigned Thursday amid growing skepticism over the viability of the unreleased US proposal.
Greenblatt, a former lawyer for the Trump Corporation, said last week that the US peace plan would not be released until after the September 17 Israeli election that will decide whether Benjamin Netanyahu remains Israel’s prime minister.
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Although Greenblatt never participated in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, he had worked closely with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner on developing the plan, the contents of which have been closely guarded.
A senior US official said Greenblatt left on good terms to spend more time with his family and that he “holds the confidence of the president.”
Kushner said Greenblatt’s work had “helped develop the relationships between Israel and its neighbors,” and said he is “trusted and respected by all of the leaders throughout the region.”
“I am incredibly grateful to have been part of a team that drafted a vision for peace. This vision has the potential to vastly improve the lives of millions of Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region,” said Greenblatt in a statement.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Camp David Accords, 1978
A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
The Madrid Conference, 1991
The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital city of Madrid. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Oslo I Accord, 1993
The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000
US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002
The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
The Roadmap, 2003
The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Annapolis, 2007
In 2007 US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Washington, 2010
In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a ten-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues
A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Paris summit, 2017
Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as “rigged” against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. “A two-state solution is the only possible one,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.
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A history of the Middle East peace process
Deteriorating relations in 2017
Despite the year’s optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump’s plan to move the embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say “the measures … undermine all peace efforts.”
Criticism from Palestinians
Some Palestinians have already said they would reject any plan from the US, and have accused the Trump administration of being biased toward Israeli interests. Tentative plans to release the proposal have already been dropped at least twice.
Greenblatt was criticized by Palestinians for advocating the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, along with recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He was also part of the Trump administration’s push to cut US funding for the aid of Palestinian refugees.
After Greenblatt announced his departure, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Greenblatt had “ruined the credibility” of the US and “destroyed” the peace process with Israel.
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Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, told the AFP news agency that Greenblatt’s departure was a US “admission of failure.”
“They tried to bash the Palestinians into submission, to blackmail us to accept whatever their plan was. From the beginning it was doomed to failure,” she said. “I think the Palestinians as a whole are going to say ‘good riddance’. He was an apologist for the most extreme, hard-line government in the history of Israel.”
Netanyahu thanked Greenblatt “for his dedicated work for security and peace and for never hesitating to tell the truth about the state of Israel to its detractors.
wmr/sms (AP, dpa, AFP)
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