Photo Credit: Issam Rimawi / Flash 90
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas

The Trump administration peace team offered the Palestinian Authority a deal based on a confederation together with Jordan, according to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, who told a meeting Sunday that included Israeli lawmakers and leftist Peace Now activists that he was willing to consider the plan if it included Israel. He met with the Israeli delegation in Ramallah.

Abbas was quoted as saying that he wanted “a three-party confederation with Jordan and Israel” and he was “asking Israel to accept such a proposal.”

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The Palestinian Authority leader claimed that he wasn’t the one holding up negotiations, but rather, Israel had refused to negotiate on some important issues, even refusing to meet with him in the past. Abbas said bluntly that he has “a problem with Netanyahu, not with the Likud,” noting that he has also met with the head of the Shin Bet intelligence service. Abbas claimed that Israelis and PA Arabs agree on “99 percent” of the issues, adding that security services in the Palestinian Authority coordinate daily with Israel’s security establishment.

The proposed confederation was allegedly presented to Abbas by senior White House advisor Jared Kushner during a meeting that included U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt in August 2017.

The proposal was presented as a potential part of United States President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.

The Palestinian Authority leader subsequently accused the United States of being “hostile toward the Palestinians and [putting an end to] the peace process.”

Yona Schnitzer and TPS contributed content to this report.


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.