President Donald Trump stood beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as he announced his long waited Middle East peace proposal. Even before the announcement, the plan was earning massive skepticism.
“My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood into security,” Trump said in an address from the White House. “This plan will double Palestinian territory and set the capital of the Palestinian state in eastern Jerusalem where the United States will happily open an embassy.”
The announcement was hyped on Fox News Tuesday morning, with a series of segments dedicated to a plan that has been in the works since Trump was inaugurated — but one that had been rejected by Palestinians before it was even announced.
In his written report on the event, Fox News White House reporter John Roberts noted that “odds of the peace plan taking shape are long given that the Palestinians have preemptively rejected the plan.” Roberts also noted that Palestinians are likely to object to Israel claiming sovereignty over
Between the propositions for Palestinian territorial concessions, a West Bank border favorable to Israel, and the lack of Palestinian representation for a plan that limits their autonomy, news outlets overwhelmingly cast the proposal as dead on arrival.
And sure enough, after Trump made the announcement, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected the deal and called it “nonsense.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) asserted on Twitter that because the peace plan was negotiated only with Israel, “it’s not a peace plan at all.”
Others agreed that without the involvement of the Palestinians, the chances Trump’s plan bringing peace to the region are remote: