In leaky White House, Trump team keeps Middle East peace plan secret

By Steve Holland

 

FILE PHOTO: White House senior adviser Jared Kushner smiles as he watches U.S. President Donald Trump talk with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a White House where no secret is safe for long, one development has remained stubbornly confidential - the contents of a Middle East peace plan authored by President Donald Trump's advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.

 

With Trump having delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017 and moving the American Embassy to the holy city last May, a U.S.-brokered peace deal may seem farther away now than when talks collapsed five years ago.

 

Then on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election, only days after proposing to annex Jewish West Bank settlements, traditionally viewed as illegal by much of the world. The Trump administration has yet to comment on the election-eve remarks.

 

Aides expect Trump to release the plan once Netanyahu forms a government coalition, and officials say that despite criticism of the administration's moves to date, the plan will demand compromises from both sides.

 

That the peace plan has remained a secret is remarkable in a White House where drafts of executive orders, confidential conversations and internal deliberations all find their way to the front pages.

 

Kushner and Greenblatt have limited the plan's distribution over the two years they have been crafting it. It has been kept secret "to ensure people approach it with an open mind" when it is released, a senior administration official said.

 

Only four people have regular access - Kushner, Greenblatt, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz, the official said.

Trump is briefed regularly on the contents but is not believed to have read the entire document of dozens of pages.

 

"He is briefed if something interesting is happening or there is an idea they want to run by him," the official said.

 

Kushner, a New York real estate developer and husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka, and Greenblatt, a former lawyer for Trump, joined the process knowing little about the tortured, decades-long path in search of Arab-Israeli peace.

 

Their proposal addresses such core political issues as the status of Jerusalem, and separately aims at helping the Palestinians strengthen their economy.

 

Cloaked in secrecy is whether the plan will propose outright the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians’ core demand.

 

On Wednesday, Trump's secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the plan would be presented before too long but, when asked, declined to say whether the administration favoured a two-state solution, long the basis of Middle East peacemaking.

 

Not even Trump, who is known to blurt out news whenever he feels like it, has dribbled out details of the peace plan because of the sensitivity.

 

He tells his Middle East envoys, "If you guys can get this done you’re going to be the greatest negotiators in history," said a senior White House official.

'YOUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE'

 

When Kushner and Greenblatt began developing their plan in 2017, they asked the parties to look to the future and describe an outcome on each issue that they could accept rather than get locked into historical stances, two officials said.

 

"You can't let your grandfather's conflict hold back your children's future" was their message to both sides, one official said.

 

Palestinians reject Trump's pro-Israel policies.

 

"The extremist and militaristic agenda, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s reckless policies and blind support," said PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi.

 

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton are all kept up to date on the peace plan, but have kept a hands-off approach to it, deferring to Kushner, two other officials said.

 

The secrecy maintained by Kushner and Greenblatt, even as they refine and polish the plan, has posed something of a challenge for Gulf governments, who want to know the details before committing resources to a Palestinian fund.

 

Kushner and Greenblatt toured Gulf states in February to promote the economic part of the plan and get opinions about it, without providing a detailed view of the contents of the more crucial political section.

 

One of their stops was in Qatar.

 

Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Lolwah Al Khater, speaking to a small group of reporters in Washington recently, gave no indication that Kushner and Greenblatt provided much in the way of details on the political plan when they visited.

 

 

"I don't think it’s still set in stone," she said.

 

Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East envoy and now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the U.S. team still has "a lot of work to do to make sure that Arab leaders aren't surprised by what's going to be presented, and they need to see it in writing, not verbally."

 

But he said secrecy at this point is understandable.

 

"Holding something very close makes sense and it’s not taken as a negative by the parties, because in the end, if the content isn’t leaking out, it also makes sure that what would be controversial doesn’t create an immediate firestorm. There’s a logic to that," Ross said.

 

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-12

Doubt there is much of a plan other than making money and pandering for votes

28 minutes ago, Tug said:

Doubt there is much of a plan other than making money and pandering for votes

 

I guess you will remain on a need to know basis. 

How a group primarily represented by Orthodox Jews will deliver a peace plan acceptable to the Jewish State, Palestinians and Islamic majority countries will be interesting.

All the Palestinians need to do is agree to give Trump/Kushner LLC. 100 years of exclusivity on all the hotels, high rise condos, and golf courses in Palestine, and they're pretty much assured their own country.

 

Edit:  Of course, that may not bring peace.  In fact, it could go the other way.  But Trump/Kushner LLC will still get richer...

 

Edited April 12, 20197 yr by impulse

The Trump and Pompeo peace plan.

 

1. Support Israel unconditionally. Support the settlements, and the additional annexation of the Golan Heights. In addition move the embassy to a made up capital. 

 

2. Support a despot serial killer in the house of Saud. Do not question MBS, about his killing of Jamal. Nor his jailing of thousands of women, who simply want to drive, perhaps vote, and more than likely want to get out from under that ridiculous outfit they are forced to wear, by very insecure men.

 

3. Do everything in your power to alienate all of our closest European allies.

 

4. Avoid any discussion about a Palestinian peace settlement.

8 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The Trump and Pompeo peace plan.

 

1. Support Israel unconditionally. Support the settlements, and the additional annexation of the Golan Heights. In addition move the embassy to a made up capital. 

 

2. Support a despot serial killer in the house of Saud. Do not question MBS, about his killing of Jamal. Nor his jailing of thousands of women, who simply want to drive, perhaps vote, and more than likely want to get out from under that ridiculous outfit they are forced to wear, by very insecure men.

 

3. Do everything in your power to alienate all of our closest European allies.

 

4. Avoid any discussion about a Palestinian peace settlement.

I think you nailed it!!

It has remained secret because there isn't one. The industrial military complex would destroy any plan if it existed anyway, keep the production lines rolling, the middle east is a test bed for new weapons systems. 

"....remained stubbornly confidential - the contents of a Middle East peace plan..."

Hard to see or leak what doesn't exist.

"Do you see my invisible friend? No?.... see, proves he is there...."

3 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 

I guess you will remain on a need to know basis. 

Yes, we can be confident that Trump really has a plan. I guess Americans don't need to know about Trump's health care plan either which he claimed was nearly ready on Jan 15, 2017.

"President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-vows-insurance-for-everybody-in-obamacare-replacement-plan/2017/01/15/5f2b1e18-db5d-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.0469b13bfa4c

The Trump Peace Plan has been hidden in plain sight.

It was Bibi's election campaign platform.

Eretz Israel on steroids.

You gotta have water in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza, before it can leak from the bucket dear Liza.

 

meanwhile.... this ensemble might be enough of a lobby group to represent Israeli interests in any peace deal.... but who is representing all the other parties involved?

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Only four people have regular access - Kushner, Greenblatt, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz,

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Their proposal addresses such core political issues as the status of Jerusalem,

There is no political issue as to Jerusalem. The UN charter or whatever it was that created Israel made Jerusalem an international city. Neither side should have it.

While reality is obviously different, Israel only holds it by force of arms.

The Trump/Kushner peace plan- yep that will be a doozy and likely to involve real estate and hotels

2 hours ago, Emdog said:

"....remained stubbornly confidential - the contents of a Middle East peace plan..."

Hard to see or leak what doesn't exist.

"Do you see my invisible friend? No?.... see, proves he is there...."

"a Middle East peace plan"

Maybe it's just spelling.

It is actually a Middle East piece plan."

Israel absorbs pieces of Syria and Palestine into the Jewish state with the remainder to be treated as a "no man's zone."

Netanyahu is not a man of peace. He doesn't;t want peace, he wants to crush the Palestinians and steal their land. Since Trump does everything Netanyahu demands, peace will not suddenly break out in the Middle East. The US are not honest brokers and should retire from the ME.

4 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Netanyahu is not a man of peace. He doesn't;t want peace, he wants to crush the Palestinians and steal their land. Since Trump does everything Netanyahu demands, peace will not suddenly break out in the Middle East. The US are not honest brokers and should retire from the ME.

Who said it's their land?

 

Hamas does not even recognize the State of Israel - there lies 'your' problem.

dump trump peace process

 

wage war in all middle east, nuke bomb everything then when everybody dead, it will be peace...

 

indeed trump and bibi shall be locked for life without parole in the same 15 feet jail room!

The plan is kept secret in Netanyahu's safe.

10 hours ago, webfact said:

In leaky White House, Trump team keeps Middle East peace plan secret

even to themselves, shhh...

 

even the national geographic couldn't make a cobra and a mongoose live together in peace

I'm hoping for the best, but looking at the one sided composition of the group working on the peace plan and looking at the recent actions of Trump and Netanyahu I am far from optimistic.

12 hours ago, isaanjohnno said:

The Trump/Kushner peace plan- yep that will be a doozy and likely to involve real estate and hotels

Anytime Kushner's name is mentioned in any capacity, it is very hard to take the subject, nor the man seriously. This is a silver spoon fed man child, who has never really accomplished anything in his life. He is working with his father, who is the brains in the family, and the felon. His father did all of the hard work. Now, his son commits the crimes, for both his dad, and his father in law. He is the very definition of an empty suit. That he should be part of this administration, say alot about how weak Trump is, when it comes to finding or hiring real talent, and keeping any hint of talent that he is fortunate enough to attract. 

Being kept secret, in the same way my plan for being a billionaire and establishing a colony on Jupiter by year's end is being kept secret.

 

 

It is really easy to keep a nonexistent plan secret

 

Sort of like leaky boat in drydock

 

or like the fabolous Health Care Plan

 

or _______________________________________________________add you own here

 

 

To put it simply...

 

How many American voters of Jewish descent compared to those of Arab descent?

8 minutes ago, Basil B said:

To put it simply...

 

How many American voters of Jewish descent compared to those of Arab descent?

I'll try to put the kindest spin on your assertion and just put it down to your not being familiar with the American political landscape. Jews voted overwhelmingly against Trump in 2016. And there's no indication in polling that their distaste has lessened. Quite the contrary.

U.S. Jews’ Support for Trump at Serious Low Despite anti-Democratic Campaign, Poll Finds

"71 percent of Jewish respondents to Gallup poll say they disapprove of Trump, despite attempts to sway voters to back the GOP through support of groups like Jexodus

A new poll published Thursday shows that despite President Donald Trump's recent efforts to convince Jewish American voters to support the Republican Party, his standing among U.S. Jews continues to be miserable — and is, in fact, the lowest among several religious groups examined.

The Gallup poll, based on interviews with 978 Jewish American, shows that only 26 percent of them approve of Trump's conduct as president, while only 16 percent define themselves as Republicans. 

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-u-s-jews-support-for-trump-at-serious-low-despite-campaign-poll-finds-1.7024010

 

American Jews are mostly not at all pleased with the Netanyahu government. If you want to look for political reasons for Trump's stance on Israel, look no further than his base, the single biggest element of which is Evangelical Christians. They are largely fanatical supporters of Netanyahu and points right on the Israeli political scene.

Edited April 13, 20197 yr by bristolboy