Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying with all his strength to prevent or at least postpone the presentation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, also nicknamed the Deal of the Century. A very high-placed political source in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that “Netanyahu reached the conclusion that if the deal will be unwrapped in the coming months, before Israel’s elections, it will make it very difficult for him to win with a significant majority and it would harm his survival plan vis-a-vis the anticipated investigations and indictments against him.”
The information that recently reached Jerusalem regarding the main points of the American proposal arouses great worry in Netanyahu’s circle. A senior diplomatic source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity last week that the program includes a clear partition of Jerusalem into three sections, and “it is not about a Palestinian capital in Abu-Dis (a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem governance area) but in significant sections of East Jerusalem.” According to the source, there will be two capitals in Jerusalem: the Israeli capital in West Jerusalem including control over the Western Wall and Jewish neighborhoods in the city’s eastern sections, and the capital of Palestine in the eastern section. In addition will be a third region, within the Holy Basin, to be under international control.
Needless to say, the Israeli right-wing will raise tremendous protests over such a plan and cause a public uproar. Netanyahu will have to respond to the plan. According to another diplomatic source also speaking on condition of anonymity, “Even if President Mahmoud Abbas hurries to say ‘no,’ Netanyahu will still have to express his opinion. And so he will find himself caught between a rock and hard place, to say the least.”
Should Netanyahu say “yes” to Trump, he will find himself in great trouble with the right. Even if he doesn't answer Trump immediately and postpones his response, he will receive harsh criticism from his right-wing electoral base. That is the same base that abandoned HaBayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett in the last elections in 2015 and instead voted for Netanyahu and offered him victory. If Netanyahu says “no” to Trump, he may lose the American president as a strategic ally and as Netanyahu’s most important diplomatic asset.
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