Abbas Seeks to Trump Talk of 3-State Solution

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas used his speech to the Palestinian Central Council convention in Ramallah on Sunday to put a halt to newfound talk of a “3-state solution.” While it took years to get both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to endorse the so-called “two-state solution,” the political mantra regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the new formulation is the result of speculation concerning the terms of the so-far-unrevealed Trump peace plan. Although it doesn’t use the expression, the plan being credited to Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly calls for United States assistance in large amounts sent directly to the Gaza Strip, circumventing the need to send funds first to Abbas who is then expected to disburse directly to humanitarian projects. Separate funding would be directed to projects in the West Bank. Add Israel, and it’s effectively 3-states. But Abbas will have no part of any end-runs around his authority (whether with a big or little “A”). He declared at the convention that, “There will be no state in the Gaza Strip and no state without the Gaza Strip.” Playing on U.S. President Donald Trump and media’s attempt to equate his peace plan with his previous references to an Israeli-Palestinian peace being the “ultimate deal,” Abbas declared that, “The plot against the Palestinian people isn’t over. We are against ‘The Deal of the Century’. East Jerusalem is our capital.” Revisiting the recurring and retroactive rejection of the Balfour Declaration – the 1917 statement of British support for a Jewish home land that preceded Israeli statehood – Abbas also declared that “The Balfour Declaration may have been implemented but the Palestinian People will not allow the ‘Deal of the Century’ to be implemented.”