One of the most common electronic viruses that hit computers is called a "Trojan horse", which, as is the well-known historical story, can not carry out its disgraceful work, only after it deceives the user and makes him accept it. In the computer world, "Trojan horse" is malicious software designed to mislead users about its true destination. This is exactly the case with US President Donald Trump's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was officially announced at the White House on Tuesday.

After nearly two years of delay and a lot of thinking, Trump finally announced his plan known as the "Deal of the Century", and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at his side, at a ceremony at the White House. Palestinian leaders, who rejected this plan altogether and in detail since the Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel in December 2017, did not appear at the launch of the "Deal of the Century" ceremony.

At first glance, the plan appears to include some plausibility. It talks about a realistic "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and unprecedented pledges to spend 50 billion as investments, as the words "Palestinian capital" were mentioned in the same sentence. But beyond that, there was a more insidious program designed to completely eliminate the two-state solution, and to normalize the Israeli occupation and annexation, within the reality of the one state on the ground, which is Israel.

Shining cover

Despite its shining coverage, talk of promises of a two-state solution, and promises of investment in billions of dollars, Trump's peace plan was nothing more than a political malware, disguised as a credible diplomatic initiative. Its aim was not to achieve peace, but rather to normalize the fait accompli, including the Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians, in order to ensure its permanent continuity.

Although the plan speaks of "making concessions" from "both parties", it meets a long list of demands by the far-right Israeli government for almost all major issues, from unified Jerusalem, to annexing areas of the Palestinian territories, and ending with the liquidation of the rights of Palestinian refugees. Although the plan claims to be "realistic" and "based on facts", it is mired in political and historical revisionist ideas.

There was no mention of the Israeli occupation. In his speech at the White House, Netanyahu ridiculed the idea that Israel was an occupying power, despite the international consensus on it, and considered it a big lie. Indeed, the peace plan proposes cosmetic adjustments to the status quo, while eliminating all issues of concern to the Palestinians, such as Jerusalem, refugees, and sovereignty. Although Jerusalem is the most sensitive, and the most contentious of all other issues, it will remain united under permanent Israeli sovereignty.

The whole point

The bottom line of this plan remains the creation of the so-called Palestinian state on about 70% of the West Bank lands, but without any meaningful form of sovereignty, and about 120 Israeli settlements in addition to 650,000 Israeli settlers will now live in the occupied West Bank, Under permanent Israeli control, in addition to the entire Jordan Valley, which makes the putative Palestinian state a kind of Palestinian Canton surrounded by Israel from all sides and remains at its mercy. Trump's current vision is a recipe for the sustainability of the Israeli occupation.

The borders of Palestine, its airspace, territorial waters and its electromagnetic field will remain under the control of Israel, while its government will be removed from the ability to participate in international treaties. Communication between the Palestinian territories will be restricted to Israeli settlers only, while the Palestinians will obtain a "communication system" through a modern network of bridges, roads and tunnels.

In addition, the establishment of such a besieged and dismantled Palestinian entity is subject to a wide range of conditions, including a set of judicial, political, financial and security reforms, such as the disarmament of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, and the decision to fulfill these conditions is in the hands of Israel. One of the most disturbing elements of Trump's peace plan includes a proposal to exchange areas in Israel that are characterized by a high population density of Palestinians, with another in the supposed state of Palestine, an idea advocated by the owners of the idea of ​​pure Jewish race from the extreme right, who aim to reduce the number of those who are Non-Jews in Israel.

Refugees

Trump's peace plan did not address the issue of Palestinian refugees, including those who fled or were expelled from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948, as well as their offspring. Despite previous peace negotiations, including those that were supervised by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and the Annapolis negotiations between 2007 and 2008, she spoke of a symbolic return of a number of refugees, but Trump's plan explicitly declared that there would be "no right to return and enter any Palestinian refugees to the state of Israel »Alternatively, Palestinian refugees can choose to integrate into the countries that host them now, or be resettled to third countries, or assimilated into the newly formed Palestinian entity.

In fact, the chances of the Palestinians agreeing to negotiate based on Trump's vision are nil. Angering the plan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected it and considered it a "conspiracy" that would be destined for the "dustbin of history", threatening that he would transfer the case to the International Criminal Court.

Perhaps the plan was designed for the Palestinians to reject it outright, which could be used as a pretext against them to justify the Israeli annexations. Indeed, within hours of the plan's publication, Netanyahu announced that the process of spreading Israeli sovereignty in areas not designated for the Palestinian entity will begin to be discussed by the Knesset, within a few days. Trump's ambassador to Israel was quick to provide unconditional support for this annexation.

In fact, this is not the first US-sponsored initiative to be strongly aligned with Israel, although it is likely that there has been no peace plan in the past characterized by this bias, as is the case with this last plan. The previous administrations were talking about basic international principles and laws, even if only for the sake of raising the threshold, as they were calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and insisting, in theory, on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

By comparison, the American administration has struck the wall openly and during the day systematically with all the basic principles that have supported the peace process for more than half a century, which was the primary motivation for the Palestinians to join a diplomatic process with their much more powerful enemy, Israel.

This rejection of principles and precedents began with the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017, canceling 70 years of American policy, followed by the administration’s recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and finally the US Secretary of State’s declaration that Israeli settlements are no longer illegal.

Some observers believe that it is important to take advantage of the plan's announcement of its support for a two-state solution, and that local leaders should give this plan an opportunity or at least build on some positive elements in it.

Khaled Al-Jundi: Senior Expert at the American Middle East Institute.

- Some observers believe that it is important to take advantage of the plan's announcement of its support for the two-state solution, and that local leaders should give this plan an opportunity or at least build on some positive elements in it.

The borders of Palestine, its airspace, territorial waters, and its electromagnetic field will remain under the control of Israel, while its government will be removed from the ability to participate in international treaties. Communication between the Palestinian territories will be restricted to Israeli settlers only, while the Palestinians will obtain a "communication system" through a modern network of bridges, roads and tunnels .