White House Promises Trump's Middle East Peace Plan Will Be 'Most Detailed Ever'

Administration officials told Haaretz they want a blueprint that can be 'sellable' to both sides in the conflict

Washington

Jul 26, 2018

Jason Greenblatt, center left, and Jared Kushner, center right, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, June 22, 2018.Credit: Matti Stern/ U.S. Embassy

Amir Tibon

Washington

Jul 26, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians will be “the most detailed ever” and will include a “robust” economic component, according to senior White House officials who briefed a number of American media outlets this week.

The officials added that they hope Palestinian leadership will read the peace plan and provide “realistic feedback” on how to improve it and promote the peace process, despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' boycott of the administration and his refusal to engage in discussions about the plan.

The plan would to include a large number of economic projects aimed at improving the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the officials said. The plan's blueprint was formulated over the past year by a small White House team that included Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and Jason Greenblatt, the president’s special envoy to the region.

Kushner and Greenblatt asked Middle Eastern leaders to draw up a proposed plan that they "could live with," and the other side could accept, the officials said. Earlier this year, White House officials told Haaretz that they want the peace plan to be "sellable" on both sides, pushing back against claims from the Palestinian side that it will be one-sided and based entirely on Israeli positions.

As in previous briefings to the press, the officials, who spoke with American media outlets, did not say when the plan would be published, only saying that a “roll out strategy” was being prepared. Kushner told the New York Times earlier this week that the plan was “almost ready” and that it would be presented when the administration believed the situation seemed right.

Earlier this week, Kushner and Greenblatt met in Washington with the head of Egypt’s intelligence services, Abbas Kamel, to discuss the situation in Gaza and Egypt’s attempts to prevent another war between Israel and Hamas. The Trump administration has consistently blamed Hamas for the security tensions in Gaza and the economic misery in the coastal enclave.