In an interview with Kuwaiti TV host Fajr al-Saeed, known for her appearance on Israeli TV in defiance of many death threats, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he was not optimistic about the US-proposed peace plan for Israel and the PA, a.k.a. the Deal of the Century.
“I am an optimist by nature,” said Mubarak, who is 91 and has seen a life sentence against him be overturned by the new regime in Cairo, “but my general view on this issue is not optimistic.”
“Any solution that would be imposed on the region based on the imbalance of power will not last, and will remain a temporary solution that could explode at any moment,” Mubarak told al-Saeed, cautioning that whatever we know about the deal comes from mostly leaks to newspapers. Nevertheless, he said, “these introductions are unsatisfactory.”
Mubarak described those displeasing introductions as being “the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition by America of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, and the continued expansion of settlements in the occupied territories.”
“Second, Netanyahu, I know him very well, he also knows me, and knows my frankness with him. He does not want a two-state solution for the sake of peace,” the deposed Egyptian president said. “He wants to separate Gaza from the West Bank, and he was talking to me about this issue. He visited me in late 2010, and he asked if the Palestinians in Gaza were able to take over part of the Sinai. I told him, forget what you are doing.” Then a presidential assistant interrupted the conversation “and saved me,” Mubarak recalled.
“If all the people who are on the ground today undermine the two-state solution, what is the alternative? What is the political horizon?” Mubarak challenged President Trump’s solution. “Projects, investments and cooperation? But what is the political path?”
Of course, the political path is precisely what the Trump team is trying to bypass, in an effort to bolster the economy in the PA and possibly in Gaza as well – in order to build up an Arab middle class that could stand up to the thugs who have been terrorizing them for decades, with Mubarak’s blessings.