Farce, fraud, fury

The Trump administration has finally lifted the curtains on the final act of its Middle East diplomacy by revealing the long-awaited, ahem, "peace plan" in a surrealistic White House celebration.

I will admit from the outset that I cannot write about it with a straight face, considering the absurdity of the last three years of Trump policies towards Israel and Palestine.

To call it a "peace plan" is to do injustice to the infamous "peace process" and its many failed "peace plans". It is so much worse, that a better term for it would be an "assault on peace".

Everything about the plan is farcical.

ts pompous name, the "Deal of the Century"; its unfit author, Jared Kushner, a fanatic Zionist supporter of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land; its premise, "when humiliation does not work, more humiliation will"; its bizarre framing as a lovefest between the American and Israeli right; and its absurd substance, which punishes the victims and rewards the aggressors.

In the three decades of the American-led "peace process", successive administrations at least pretended to engage, consult or listen to the Palestinian side, even when doing Israel's bidding.

But since occupying the White House, the Trump administration has, on Netanyahu's advice, unashamedly acted to permanently deprive the Palestinians of their participation in the negotiations – and deprive them of their land, liberty and dignity.

And today, the Trump administration, in complicity with the Netanyahu government, is taking the root causes of the protracted conflict in Palestine, repackaging them and presenting them as a permanent solution.

The devil is not in the detail; it's in the headlines of Trump's initiative. So, to resolve the problem of the illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian lands, Trump wants them legalised and recognised as part of Israel.

To resolve the problem of Israel's illegal annexation of occupied Jerusalem, Trump wants it recognised as the capital of Israel and Israel alone.

To deal with the question of Palestinian refugees and their inalienable right of return and compensation, Trump wants to prevent their return.

To solve the problem of violent, repressive and inhumane Israeli control over the Palestinians, Trump wants to see that extended indefinitely. Even after the Palestinians meet all the new conditions imposed on them, they would still be at the mercy of Israel's security forces.

The Trump plan tramples over United Nations Security Council resolution 242, which requires Israel to return to its 1967 borders (or to their approximate, according to past US initiatives), and redraws the borders to suit Israel's settlements and facilitate its control.

Excerpted from: 'Trump's 'peace plan': The farce, the fraud and the fury'.

AlJazeera.com