The President of the Palestinian Authority (AP), Mahmoud Abbas, had set himself two objectives when coming to New York, Tuesday, February 11: once again to seek broad international mediation, as a counter-fire to Washington's "vision" for "peace" Israeli-Palestinian. And to remind everyone that he remains a key interlocutor for Israel. His visit ended six intense days during which the fate of Palestine took center stage, and behind the scenes, at the United Nations.
At the Council table where he was invited to speak, Abbas reiterated his total rejection of the American plan: "This card looks like a Swiss cheese with holes!" ", he exclaimed, brandishing a reproduction of the borders proposed by Washington. "Who among you would accept a state under these conditions? " According to him, this proposal is "A preemptive Israeli-American plan to put an end to the question of Palestine", who would make his country "A fragmented state", he insisted, and would act a situation "Apartheid".
Officially, the plan, unveiled by Donald Trump and by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on January 28 in the White House, retains the principle of a two-state solution. But, by aligning itself with Israel's security concerns and by taking up the arguments of the country's nationalist and messianic right, it is less like a basis for negotiation than an enterprise of destruction of what has constituted for half a century the parameters of a peace agreement. And threatens to collapse the PA.
The plan returns the future capital of a Palestinian state outside of Jerusalem, in outlying and malfamous suburbs. It offers to Israel to annex the Jordan Valley and all of its settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In the short term, it finally promises the Palestinians, in the long term, a demilitarized state without control over its borders, while subjecting its creation to a long list of preconditions, starting with the disarmament of Hamas in Gaza.
"Beginning of dialogue"
Unsurprisingly, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft contradicted Abbas, explaining that the plan, which comes with pledges of international investment of up to $ 50 billion (45 billion euros), doesn’t was not "Frozen in stone: this is a proposal to start a dialogue".
