Apparently Netanyahu felt that the times had changed enough (for the worse) that Israel could withstand the negative regional and international outrage that annexation will cause.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas mocked Trump's Deal of the Century as the "slap of the century." And he told Trump where he can put that $50 billion.
"Jerusalem is not for sale, our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain and your deal, [this] conspiracy will not pass," Abbas said Tuesday.
Palestinian activist Fakhry Abu Diab told Al Jazeera: "It is obvious that Trump is repeating history by establishing a new Balfour Declaration. He [Trump] is giving away what he does not own, to people who have no right to it."
International law professor Francis Boyle, who was an adviser to the PLO and Yasser Arafat, told Consortium News: "As this plan moves forward, I don't think there will be much of Palestine to speak of. It will be Greater Israel. Then there will be another Nakba forcing a lot of Palestinians into Jordan: Jordan is Palestine."
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted: "This plan was negotiated with no one but the Israelis, and thus it's not a peace plan at all. Peace can only be achieved through agreement between Israel and the Palestinian people. By setting these new terms, it makes it harder for Israel to compromise later."
Murphy said,
"Any claim that this plan envisions a Palestinian state is just false. The plan allows Israel to control all security matters inside the Palestinian 'state,' and thus it's not a state at all. The unilateral annexation of the Jordan River valley and existing settlements, deemed illegal under U.S. and international law, will set back the peace process decades. And it risks real violence and massive destabilization inside places like Jordan."
Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman, tweeted: "Netanyahu is clear: Trump is the first world leader to say it is alright for Israel to steal land."
Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement: "The shameful peace plan imposed by America on the Palestinians is the treason of the century and doomed to fail." Jordan warned against the "dangerous consequences of unilateral Israeli measures that aim to impose new realities on the ground."
To make it work, Netanyahu needs the support of Arab governments that have long abandoned the Palestinian cause. In a statement, the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba, portrayed Trump's plan as "a serious initiative that addresses many issues raised over the years."
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said it "appreciates the efforts of President Trump's administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan." The Egyptian government, which is dependent on Saudi financing, urged Israelis and Palestinians to "carefully study" the plan and said it appreciated the U.S. effort to solve the decades-0ld crisis.
Israeli troops were reinforced on the West Bank anticipating a violent reaction.
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