Report: Trump’s Middle East peace plan includes ‘pathway’ to Palestinian statehood

The Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan does not provide for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, but would offer a “pathway” to eventual statehood, a report by The Washington Post claims.

According to two people with knowledge of the plan who were cited by The Washington Post on condition of anonymity, the ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan will offer the Palestinian Authority “limited autonomy” during a transitional period, with expanding powers leading up to statehood – but only if the PA meets certain goals specified in the deal.

The plan, which remains under wraps until its official unveiling at 7:00 p.m. (Jerusalem time, 12:00 p.m. Washington time) on Tuesday, has been the focus of much media speculation, and reports on alleged details of the proposal.

The latest report, published hours before the plan’s release, claims that the administration will offer the Palestinian Authority a “pathway” to statehood which begins with limited autonomy for a three-year interim period.

During that three-year period, the Palestinian Authority will be gradually given expanded powers culminating in statehood, so long as the PA meets goals set out in the plan, including renouncing violence and implementing internal political reform.

Notably, the sources cited by the Post report claim that the autonomy would extend not only to Arab towns in Judea and Samaria, but also to parts of eastern Jerusalem, contradicting some previous reports which suggested the Israeli capital city would remain off the table.

“There are a lot of goodies in there for the Palestinians — a lot — but by no means all of what they have long sought,” one source told the Post. “They have within their grasp a state.”

But the two sources cited in the report also said that the plan takes Israeli security concerns into account, and that Israeli security control over the area would continue.

The plan also allows Israel to retain its towns in Judea and Samaria, with one source saying the plan is based on the idea that the Palestinian Authority’s position for negotiations is bad and getting worse,

The plan “acknowledges reality as it is.”

Another report, published Tuesday by the Dubai-based Al-Hadath news outlet, cited American officials who claimed that the deal offers the establishment of a Palestinian state, in exchange for Israel’s annexation of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

The Al-Hadath report also claims that the Trump administration’s peace plan, dubbed the “deal of the Century”, will preserve the status quo on the Temple Mount, leaving the holy site under care of the Jordanian Waqf.