Israel will reject General John Allen’s security plan should the United States offer it again, a senior political source clarified recently, according to NRG, following reports that the Administration is reviewing the Allen assessment.
According to Friday’s Ha’aretz, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Jason Greenblatt, had held a number of meetings with Obama Administration peace negotiators, most notably retired United States Marine Corps four-star general John R. Allen, who prepared a detailed security plan for the Obama-Kerry team for the day after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Allen plan was never made public, and has remained classified. Former officials advised the Trump people to employ the plan in any future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, because it offers robust security arrangements for Israel on the day after.
A few weeks ago, President Trump appointed retired US Air Force Colonel Christopher “Mort” Bowman to a senior post in the US National Security Council. Bowman was one of the key participants in designing Allen’s 2014 plan, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon rejected outright.
A source close to Netanyahu told NRG that the Prime Minister will respond in the same way should the Trump Administration present him with the Allen outline or some derivative of it.
According to unofficial sources at the time, the Allen plan outlined a variety of intelligence surveillance and monitoring mechanisms designed to prevent terror inside the future Palestinian state and to protect the border of Israel and Jordan (along the Jordan Valley) from hostile infiltration. It called for temporary IDF presence along the Jordan River, without infringing on Palestinian sovereignty. The US was going to assist with surveillance from the ground and air, providing state-of-the-art technology (purchased from Elbit?).
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has made clear in both open and closed forums that in the current geopolitical circumstances in the Middle East he opposes the withdrawal of IDF forces from Judea and Samaria or the uprooting of any settlements. Netanyahu made similar remarks at a ceremony marking 50 years of Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria. “Everyone has the right to live in his home, and no one will be uprooted from his home,” Netanyahu said.
