Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

95% of Palestinians Reject the the Trump-Netanyahu So-Called Deal of the Century, President 'Abbas Rejects it Officially at the UNSC

February 11, 2020 

Editor's Note:

While brutal force has been used to create Zionist Israel and sustain it thus far, Zionist claims to Palestine are false. Actually, from the five thousand years of known written history, there has been a continuous Palestinian-Canaanite presence in the Holy Land. Despite the Zionist false claims, the ancient Israelites ruled part of the land for only 85 years (during the reign of David, Solomon, and Solomon's son).

 After that, the Egyptians conquered Palestine-Canaan in 925 BC, followed by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, before the Arab Muslim rule, starting from 636 AD.

By the Time Jesus started his mission, the three population groups of Canaanites, Palestinians, and Israelites were melted together in religion and language. Most of them became Christians when Constantine converted in 313 AD. Then, most of them became Muslims in the 7th and 8th centuries AD.

So, Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews are the ones who have the right to claim descent from ancient Israelites, Palestinians, and Canaanites, not Zionists from other continents.

More detailed news stories can be found at the following sources:

http://english.wafa.ps/, https://english.palinfo.com/, https://imemc.org/, https://paltoday.ps/ar/

 

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, at the UNSC, showing the Trump-Netanyahu map of Palestine, which he refused, February 11, 2020

 

Abbas blasts Trump’s plan for a ‘Swiss cheese’ Palestinian state in UN speech

AFP, Issued on: 11/02/2020

FRANCE 24

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that the world should reject President Donald Trump's Middle East plan, which he said would limit Palestinian sovereignty in a "Swiss cheese" deal. 

Brandishing a large map of Israel and Palestine as laid out by Trump's long-awaited January 28 announcement, Abbas called it a "Swiss cheese" deal that would limit Palestinian sovereignty.

“This is the summary of the project that was presented to us. This is the state they would give us. It’s like a Swiss cheese, really. Who among you would accept such a state?” asked Abbas.

The Palestinians have sought to rally international support against the plan, which Trump unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has since moved forward on plans to annex vast parts of the West Bank.

Addressing members of the UN Security Council in New York, Abbas said he was speaking “on behalf of 13 million Palestinians to call for a just peace”.

The deal would bring neither peace nor stability to the region, said Abbas. “I would like to say to Mr. Donald Trump that his plan cannot achieve peace and security as it cancels international legitimacy. It cancels all the rights of the Palestinians. This does not meet the aspirations of a two-state solution," he said.

"If you impose peace it will not last, it cannot last," he said, asking: "What gives you the right to annex these lands?"

Abbas said that peace with Israel remained "achievable" and said: "I have come to build a just partnership."

"This deal is not an international partnership. This proposal was from one state, supported by another state, to be imposed." 

UN speech, but no vote

The speech came a day after the Palestinians abandoned their plans for a UN Security Council vote following pressure from the Trump administration on critics of the peace plan.

Introduced by Indonesia and Tunisia, the resolution risked not having nine out of 15 votes in its favour, the minimum required for adoption provided there is no veto by a permanent member.

While details of the diplomatic pressure have not been officially released, John Lyndon of the Alliance for Middle East Peace noted that the vote plan was shelved for two reasons. “The first related to a call for an international conference to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian issue based upon UN Security Council resolutions rather than the details of the Trump initiative, as well as, I think, an unprecedented call for Chapter 7 of the UN charter to be implemented, which would call on the UN to somehow try and implement previous UN Security Council resolutions in Israel and Palestine,” explained Lyndon in an interview with FRANCE 24. 
 
Pressure, divisions in international response to Trump plan

The Palestinian leadership has enjoyed the backing of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and, most recently, the African Union, which have all rejected the Trump plan.

But individual countries' positions are more complicated. In the midst of pushing for the UN resolution, Tunisia abruptly withdrew its UN ambassador, raising speculation that the Arab state had come under pressure from Washington.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser who has spearheaded his Middle East push, last week said there was a "ton of cracks" in opposition to the plan.

He pointed to divisions within the European Union, particularly from a handful of countries such as Hungary, led by the right-wing populist Viktor Orban.

Of the four EU members that hold seats on the Security Council, two of them – Germany and Estonia – looked ready to abstain from a vote criticising the US plan, diplomats said.

The other two members are France and Belgium. A fifth EU member that was on the Security Council, Britain, left the bloc at the end of last month.

The European Union issued a statement last week reiterating its support for a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines. The Palestinians want to establish a state in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel seized in a war with Arab countries a half-century ago.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the US initiative “departs from these internationally agreed parameters".

Israel and the US have been optimistic of winning at least muted backing from Arab states traditionally supportive of the Palestinians, with Gulf monarchies united with Israel in their hostility to Iran.

The ambassadors of Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates attended Trump's unveiling of the plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who later held a breakthrough meeting with Sudan's top general.

Netanyahu has hailed Trump's plan, under which Israel would maintain sovereignty up to the Jordanian border even if there is a Palestinian state.

'Trump is part of the problem,' say protesting Palestinians
Meanwhile thousands of Palestinians rallied Tuesday in the West Bank to reject Trump's Mideast initiative and to express support for the Palestinian leadership bid to win UN opposition to the plan.

Protesters packed Al-Manara Square in Ramallah, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. They waved Palestinian flags and held banners condemning the plan.

An English-language banner read “Trump is part of the problem not the solution,” while another condemned the “theft of the century". Arab officials and media refer to the plan sarcastically as the “deal of the century".

"All Palestinian people and all the factions, national and Islamic, are standing behind President Mahmoud Abbas,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told the crowd.

“All the streets are full," he said. "This is the Palestinian response."

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

https://www.france24.com/en/20200211-palestinian-leader-attempts-to-drum-up-opposition-to-trump-plan-at-un

Palestinian President, Mahmoud 'Abbas, at U.N., says U.S. offers Palestinians 'Swiss cheese' state

Arshad Mohammed, Steve Holland

February 11, 2020

(Reuters) -

Palestinian President, Mahmoud 'Abbas, appearing before the United Nations Security Council, on Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal as a gift to Israel and unacceptable to Palestinians.

Waving a copy of a map that the U.S. plan envisions for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, Abbas said the state carved out for Palestinians looked like a fragmented “Swiss cheese.”

In a setback for the Palestinians, a draft Security Council resolution circulated by Tunisia and Indonesia that would have implicitly criticized Trump’s plan, including Israel’s retention of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, was not put to a vote.

The text, which faced a near-certain U.S. veto, did not go forward in part because it failed to garner the support needed by the Palestinians to isolate the United States, two diplomats at the United Nations said.

One said the draft, which the United States wanted to water down, attracted 11 or 12 votes in favor on the 15-member council. A second diplomat said it would have required too many compromises to achieve the 14-1 vote the Palestinians may have sought.

“Today, by not putting forward a polarizing resolution, the United Nations Security Council demonstrated that the old way of doing things is over,” a senior Trump administration official said.

Released on Jan. 28, Trump’s plan would recognize Israel’s authority over West Bank Jewish settlements and require Palestinians meet a difficult series of conditions for a state, with its capital in a West Bank village east of Jerusalem.

“This is the state that they will give us,” said Abbas. “It’s like a Swiss cheese, really. Who among you will accept a similar state and similar conditions?”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds a map while speaking during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations in New York, U.S., February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Speaking at an election rally in the Israeli town of Bat Yam, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the criticism and hinted at the possibility that Arab states might entertain the Trump plan even if Palestinians do not.

“This is not Swiss cheese. This is the best plan that exists for the Middle East – for the Middle East – and for the State of Israel and for the Palestinians, too,” he said, adding that the plan “recognizes reality and the rights of the people of Israel, both of which you constantly refuse to recognize.”

Abbas urged Trump to disavow the plan and seek a return to negotiations based on existing U.N. resolutions that call for a two-state solution based on pre-1967 border lines.

“The U.S. cannot be the sole mediator,” he said, rejecting the traditional U.S. role in seeking to broker an end to the conflict and calling for an international conference.

Suggesting violent protests could break out, Abbas said “the situation could implode at any moment. ... We need hope. Please do not take this hope away from us.”

Later, however, he said Palestinians would not “resort to terrorism.”

Although Trump’s stated aim was to end decades of conflict, his plan favored Israel, underlined by the Palestinians’ absence from his White House announcement with Netanyahu at his side.

While Arab League foreign ministers on Feb. 1 rejected the plan, three Gulf Arab states - Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - were represented at the White House announcement, suggesting they may be prioritizing ties with Washington and a shared hostility toward Iran over traditional Arab alliances.

Abbas said the deal is not an international partnership, but rather a proposal from one state supported by another state to be imposed on Palestinians.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, accused Abbas of being unrealistic and said peace was not possible while he remained in power.

In a show of support for Abbas, Ehud Olmert, a former centrist Israeli prime minister who had claimed significant progress in talks with the Palestinians aimed at securing a final peace deal, later stood by him at a joint appearance.

Olmert, once a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, resigned in 2008 and eventually spent 16 months in jail for corruption linked to his position as mayor of Jerusalem.

A Feb. 5-8 poll conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 94% of Palestinians reject the plan, which Trump has called the “Deal of the Century.”

Reporting by Steve Holland and Arshad Mohammed; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Howard Goller and Dan Grebler.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-un/palestinians-abbas-at-u-n-says-u-s-offers-palestinians-swiss-cheese-state-idUSKBN205255  

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