Financial Times UK 30Jan2020

Thursday 30 January 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 5

minimum Arabs have long deemed

acceptable; a Palestinian state based on

boundaries before Israel occupied the

West Bank during the 1967 war, with its

capital in East Jerusalem.

The Arab country with arguably the

greatest concerns about Mr Trump’s

plan is Jordan, which borders Israel and

the West Bank. Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s

foreign minister, warned against “the

dangerous consequences of unilateral

Israeli measures, such as annexation of

Palestinian lands... that aim at impos-

ing new realities on the ground”.

But Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE,

all staunch Trump allies, have praised

Washington’s efforts and called for dia-

logue without overtly endorsing the

plan.

The muted Arab response reflects

shifting regional priorities. The US pres-

ident’s goodwill has been crucial to

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt president.

Egypt, one of two Arab states with for-

mal ties with Israel, has been drawn

closer to the Jewish state as a result of

security co-operation to combat Isis on

their shared border in the Sinai.

HA Hellyer, senior associate fellow at

the Royal United Services Institute in

London, described the Egyptian

response as “a tactical move that contin-

ues alignment with DC”, probably

because Egypt viewed the plan as a non-

starter that was “not going anywhere”.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which have

been quietly seeking closer ties with

Israel as a front against their common

foe Iran, also urged the Palestinians to

negotiate without giving explicit

endorsement to the plan. Both Saudi

Arabia and the UAE are keen to sustain

close ties with Mr Trump but also mind-

ful of calibrating their responses to ward

off accusations they are abandoning the

Palestinian cause. “The way out is to

urge the Palestinians to negotiate,

which isn’t an outright endorsement,”

said a former Gulf official.

Gamal Abouali, a former legal adviser

to the Palestine Liberation Organisa-

tion, said: “There really isn’t much that

the [Palestinian leadership] can do right

now... this was simply the US giving

official weight to Israeli policies that

have been ongoing for decades. The

worst option for the leadership right

now would be to engage with this, and to

give this any legitimacy.”

While Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian

president, would be under at least some

pressure from the US’s Arab allies, it was

unlikely he would budge from the nego-

tiating positions established in the Oslo

Process of the 1990s, said Mr Abouali.

Those included discussions about the

rights of return of at least some of the

living refugees of the 1948 war, a shared

capital in East Jerusalem and the bor-

ders of a Palestinian state roughly along

the lines of what existed after Israel’s

overwhelming victory in the 1967 war.

More robust criticism has come from

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general

of the Arab League, who said yesterday

that a “first reading of the plan indicated

a big discarding of Palestinian rights”.

“Arab states do not want to anger the

US,” said a senior Arab diplomat. “But

still no Arab state will want to be seen to

be pressuring the Palestinians to give up

Jerusalem, the right of return or the Jor-

dan valley.”

Additional reporting by Andrew England

Editorial Commentpage 10

H EBA SA L E H— CAIRO
S I M E O N K E R R— DUBAI
M E H U L S R I VA STAVA— JERUSALEM

Arab states have called for dialogue
between Israel and the Palestinians. But
a meek Arab response to a Trump peace
plan that heavily favours Israel under-
lines growing fatigue with the pro-
tracted conflict and a desire to protect
relations with the White House.
The scheme unveiled on Tuesday in
Washington is a radical departure from
long-held Arab negotiating positions
and paves the way for Israel to annex
more occupied Palestinian land.
Palestinian leaders, who have refused
to talk to US officials for more than two
years, have been enraged by the plan
but Arab governments’ reluctance to
criticise it reflects a reordering of priori-
ties in the region. While long paying lip-
service to the Palestinian cause, they
believe their national interests lie in
keeping close ties with the US as they
consider Iran the main regional threat.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates have also been increasing cov-
ert intelligence co-operation with Israel,
while also becoming more frustrated
with the Palestinian leadership.
“There is this fatigue of the Palestin-
ian issue and everyone wants to be at
least nice to [Donald] Trump. If they
think [his plan] is going to fail, then let it
fail for a different reason than us con-
fronting it,” said an Arab diplomat. But
he noted: “Trump would not have done
it had he not obtained assurances that
the reaction would not be that harsh.”
The peace plan falls far short of the

Conflict fatigue

lies behind Arab

world’s response

to Trump plan

US efforts praised, despite Palestinian

fury, in bid to protect White House ties

Mediterranean Sea

LEBANON

SYRIA

JORDAN

ISRAEL

EGYPT

Jerusalem

Gaza

Bethlehem

Janin

Hebron

Nablus

Ashdod

(port access)

Haifa

(port access)

Rafah

West Bank-

Gaza

tunnel

High-tech

manufacturing

industrial zone

Residential and

agricultural

Under Trump plan, Israeli territory

would increase further

Ramallah

Boundary representation is

not necessarily authoritative

20 km

Bridge or tunnel

Palestinian major road

Israeli enclaves

Israeli access road

Israeli strategic site

Jerusalem to

remain Israeli

JerusalemJerusalemJerusalemJerusalemJerusalemJerusalemJerusalem

Tel Aviv

Gaza City

Eilat

GOLAN

HEIGHTS

WEST

BANK

GAZA

ISRAEL

SAUDI

ARABIA

LEBANON

JORDAN

Sinai

SYRIA IRAQ

 km

Mediterranean

Sea

Israel occupies West Bank and Gaza after

 war

After  Oslo Accords, Israel

expands settlements

(Returned to

Egypt in )

Land occupied

by Israel after

the Six Day war

RamallahRamallahRamallahRamallah

JerusalemJerusalemJerusalemJerusalem

Tel Aviv

GazaGaza

City

GOLAN

HEIGHTS

WEST BANK

(Jordanian

controlled

along with

East

Jerusalem)

GAZA

(Egyptian-

controlled)

ISRAEL

SAUDI

ARABIA

LEBANON

JORDAN

EGYPT Sinai

SYRIA IRAQ

 km

Mediterranean

Sea

Israeli state after victory

in  war

: UN proposal to divide British

Mandate of Palestine

RamallahRamallahRamallahRamallah

Area A (Palestinian

controlled) and B*

Area C (Israeli controlled)

Unilaterally annexed area (East Jerusalem)

Tel Aviv

Jerusalem

RamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallahRamallah

Gaza CityGaza City

GAZA

GOLAN

HEIGHTS

ISRAEL

Mediterranean

Sea

EGYPT

SAUDI

ARABIA

SYRIA

Sinai

Mediterranean

Sea

LEBANON

Tel Aviv

Jerusalem

TRANS-

JORDAN

PALESTINE

ISRAEL

 km

Source: The White House

*Area B: Palestinian Civilian Control and

Israeli Security Control

The Golan Heights were

annexed by Israel in 1981.

This has not been

internationally recognised

except by the US in 2019

JORDAN

Sources: Israeli government; OCHA

Palestinian controlled areas

Israeli controlled areas

M I D D L E E A ST

Disputed territoriesHow borders have changed since 1947

‘If they think [the plan] is

going to fail then let it fail

for a different reason than

us confronting it’

Arab diplomat