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Latest Revision 19 April 2019, 14:47
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
France’s Ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud.
Ambassador Gérard Araud said the US peace plan is almost certainly doomed to fail
Israel will become an apartheid state, outgoing French ambassador to the United States told the Atlantic in an interview published on Friday where he officially ends his five-year term in Washington.
Ambassador Gérard Araud, who praised US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Israel will not make the Palestinians citizens of the Jewish state. Israel will thus officially become “an apartheid state,” according to Araud.
“The status quo is extremely comfortable for Israel. Because they (can) have the cake and eat it. They have the West Bank, but at the same time they don’t have to make the painful decision about the Palestinians, really making them really, totally stateless or making them citizens of Israel. They won’t make them citizens of Israel. So they will have to make it official, which is we know the situation, which is an apartheid. There will be officially an apartheid state. They are in fact already,” Araud told the Atlantic.
The outgoing French ambassador also said he believed the long awaited US peace plan is doomed to fail, but that there might be a chance that Trump can pressure Israel into concessions.
“I’m close to Jared Kushner … Everywhere in the history of mankind, when there is a negotiation between two sides, the more powerful [party] is imposing terms on the weaker party. That’s the basis of Jared Kushner’s (peace plan)—it will be a proposal very close to what the Israelis want. Is it doomed to fail? I should say 99 percent yes, but 1 percent, you never forget the 1 percent. Trump is uniquely able to push the Israelis, because he is so popular in Israel,” the ambassador said.
Meanwhile, US Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt denied recent rumors about the peace plan which suggested that Egypt give up parts of its Sinai desert to Gaza Strip for the creation of a “New State”.
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The Arab states are trying to show that they’re standing with their #Palestinian brethren by meeting in #Russia, but when it comes time to the US unveiling its peace plan, they won’t go against it, @alkassimm tells @NuritBen:
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“Hearing reports our plan includes the concept that we will give a portion of Sinai (which is Egypt’s) to Gaza. False!” Greenblatt tweeted on Friday.
“Please don’t believe everything you read. Surprising & sad to see how people who don’t know what’s in the plan make up & spread fake stories,” the US envoy added.
The US peace plan, which Greenblatt has worked on alongside Kushner for the better part of two years, will be unveiled in June.
The French ambassador told the Atlantic that Trump once told French President Emmanuel Macron that he had given “everything to the Israelis; the Israelis will have to give me something.”
“He (Trump) is totally transactional. He is more popular than (Benjamin) Netanyahu in Israel, so the Israelis trust him. That’s the first bet, Kushner told me. The second is that the Palestinians may consider, it’s their last chance to get limited sovereignty. And the third element is Kushner is going to pour money on the Palestinians. Don’t forget, the Arabs are behind the Americans. The plan is 50 pages, we were told, very precise; we don’t know what is in the plan. But we’ll see,” Araud said.
In a rare interview with Sky News Arabic in February, Kushner said the peace plan will deal with all core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Washington hopes to see the Palestinians united under one leadership.
“We want to see the Palestinians united under one leadership, the Palestinians want a non-corrupt government that cares for their own interests,” Kushner said.
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‘For #Israel to remain Jewish, democratic and secure, it cannot annex the #WestBank, or parts of the West Bank, because it will put the two-state solution at risk,’ @IsraelPolicy4m Policy Director @mkoplow tells @AmiKaufman: #Netanyahu
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According to ambassador Araud, Kushner has approached the peace plan from a very pro-Israeli point and that he lacks understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“He (Kushner) is totally in real-estate mode. He is totally dry. He’s extremely smart, but he has no guts. He doesn’t know the history. And in a sense, it’s good—we are not here to say who is right, who is wrong; we are trying to find a way. So in a sense, I like it, but at the same time he is so rational, and he is so pro-Israeli also, that he may neglect the point that if you offer the Palestinians the choice between surrendering and committing suicide, they may decide the latter. Somebody like Kushner doesn’t understand that,” Araud said.
The Palestinians have insisted the “Deal of the Century” was dead on arrival, with US-Palestinian relations at an all-time low.
Top Palestinian officials have charged that the Trump administration’s peace plan falsely assumes that money will compensate for the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people.
After Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, the Palestinians boycotted Washington.