(Evan Vucci/AP photo)
London’s The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that U.S. and Russian negotiators are eyeing a proposal to end the war in Ukraine that one source described as similar to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, in a positive connotation.
The report by The Times’s U.S. editor in Washington, DC, David Charter, reads, “Under this scenario Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, imitating Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory seized from Jordan in 1967. Under the model, Ukraine’s borders would not change, just as the borders of the West Bank have gone unchanged for 58 years, only under Israeli control.”
Charter’s source, who he describes as “close to the US national security council, is quoted as saying, “It’ll just be like Israel occupies the West Bank. With a governor, with an economic situation that goes into Russia, not Ukraine. But it’ll still be Ukraine, because … Ukraine will never give up its sovereignty. But the reality is it’ll be occupied territory and
The report includes a full-throated denial from the Trump administration from Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly. “This is total fake news and sloppy reporting by The Times, who clearly has terrible sources. Nothing of the sort was discussed with anyone at any point,” Kelly told The Times.
The Times report quickly circulated on social media, raising eyebrows and eliciting condemnation. “‘The model is Palestine.’ A cursory look at the West Bank today might suggest just a few pitfalls….” replied BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Paul Adams.
Foreign policy analyst Gregory Brew commented, “If the US is thinking about Russian-occupied Ukraine as analogous to the West Bank, how are they thinking about the West Bank? Also: analogy doesn’t track, as no state claims sovereignty over the West Bank other than the Palestinians themselves.”
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