News Desk - The Cradle
Arab diplomats are proposing a plan for a Palestinian state with a specific time frame for its establishment and with the help of international peacekeepers
In April, ministers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) finished drafting their vision for the future of Palestine after Israel's current war on Gaza. The plan included immediate international recognition of a Palestinian state and the establishment of a peacekeeping force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Peace talks between Israel and the PA are to be completed within two years and would lead to a transfer of Israeli control of West Bank crossings to the PA.
However, according to a senior Arab diplomat familiar with the matter, the US deemed the Arab proposal “completely unrealistic.”
Not wanting to reject the Arab proposal without offering an alternative, the State Department drafted a series of principles that could be used as a basis for continued talks with its Arab allies, the Arab official said.
The Times of Israel notes that the US plan claims to support the establishment of a Palestinian state but does not advocate a “time-bound, irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state,” as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously stated would be necessary for Saudi Arabia to agree for normalization with Israel.
Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers in his government have stated they reject any plan to establish a Palestinian state whatsoever. Preventing a two-state solution has been Israeli policy for decades, as Israeli leaders wish to further colonize the West Bank by expanding Jewish settlement there.
Israeli leaders have also expressed their desire to build Jewish settlements in Gaza if they successfully conquer it and expel the 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants of the strip.
On Friday, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported that the Biden White House is weighing a plan to bring the PA's security forces under the purview of the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) as part of its effort to place the PA in power in Gaza after the war.
The US Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority was created in 2005 to train PA security forces, which coordinate with the US and Israel to prevent Palestinian resistance to the occupation.
US security ties with the PA have previously been coordinated through the State Department and CIA.
According to a US official, this plan would first see CENTCOM take over responsibility for security ties in the occupied West Bank. Once the PA Security Services move into Gaza, then the force operating in the strip will be placed under CENTCOM purview as well.
The White House says it wants the PA to assume governance of Gaza after an end to the war, with Israel maintaining military control. PA President Mohammad Mustafa said in May that the PA was “prepar[ing] for the day we will be in power in Gaza.”
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