TUNNEL OF LOVE
Trump reveals Middle East peace plan with ‘two-state solution’ and tunnel linking Gaza and West Bank
DONALD Trump has tonight declared he will bring peace between Israel and Palestine as he handed over a detailed 80-page solution.
The US President said his "realistic" two-state solution - laid out in an 80-page document - is a "win-win opportunity" for both Israel and the Palestinians.
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But the announcements were met with protests in Palestine this evening with hundreds of demonstrators burning tires in the streets.
Speaking at the White House alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said Israel was taking steps towards peace and Palestinians deserved the chance for a better life.
He declared: "Today Israel takes a big step towards peace.
"Young people across the Middle East are ready for a more hopeful future, and governments throughout the region are realizing that terrorism and Islamic extremism are everyone's common enemy."
He went on to say that he has spoken to Israeli leaders and said his "vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel's security."
The 80-page plan has been presented to Netanyahu and is also a "great deal for the Palestinians," according to Trump.
The solution also included two "conceptual maps" - one for a future State of Palestine and one for the State of Israel.
'A BIG STEP TOWARDS PEACE'
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It includes territories marked as set aside for “a future State of Palestine,” a West Bank-Gaza tunnel, access roads, strategic sites and other features.
Israel is seen to include the territory immediately to the west and north of the Dead Sea, and extending further north along the Jordan Valley.
Land swap areas to the Palestinians are marked out in the Negev, stretching from Gaza along the Egyptian border.
Trump says that under his vision, Jerusalem "will remain Israel's undivided, very important capital."
He also vowed to work towards a Palestinian state with a capital in eastern Jerusalem.
The president said: “It’s been a very long and arduous process to arrive at this moment.
"On Sunday I delivered to Prime Minister Netanyahu my vision of peace and prosperity, and a brighter future for Israelis and Palestinians.
"This vision for peace is fundamentally different from past proposals.
"In the past, even the most well intentioned plans were light on factual details and heavy on conceptual frameworks."
He broke with decades of US foreign policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017.
The President then ordered the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
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The West Bank and the Israel-Palestine conflict
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Over 2.5 million Palestinians now live in occupied territories, in addition to nearly 700,000 Jewish settlers.
Israel already has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognised.
The international community, along with the Palestinians, overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal.
Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Peace talks between the two sides have been at a standstill since 2014, when a US-brokered attempt to reach a deal collapsed.
Donald Trump hopes to kick-start the process with a plan being worked on by son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The plan is made up of an economic portion, involving of $50 billion investment fund to be spent mostly in the Palestinian territories, and a political portion, which is expected to be unveiled in the coming months.
The announcement on Israeli settlements in the West Bank is the second occasion on which the Trump administration has publicly sided with Israel on a major ponit of contention.
In 2017, the president announced that the US would thereafter recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and in 2018 opened a new embassy in the city.
The move was praised by Netanyahu but rejected by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Trump said he wants his plan to work for the Palestinians as well as the Israelis.
Under the solution, he said he "will more than double the Palestinian territory and provide a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem where America will proudly open an embassy."
Trump said he wanted the plan to "be a great deal for the Palestinians."
He said: "It has to be. Today's agreement is a historic opportunity for the Palestinians to finally achieve an independent state of their very own.
"After 70 years of little progress, this could be the last opportunity they will ever have."
'A GREAT DEAL FOR THE PALESTINIANS'
The plan will also form “a contiguous territory within the Palestinian state,” hinging upon Palestinians' “rejection of terrorism.”
He added that no Palestinians or Israelis would be "uprooted from their homes."
Trump went on: "We will not allow a return to the days of blood shed, bus bombings, nightclub attacks and relentless terror. It won't be allowed."
The status of Jerusalem is ultra-sensitive and has been among the most difficult issues in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 in moves never recognised by the international community.
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It later annexed east Jerusalem and claims the entire city as its capital. The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Any world leader would face an enormous challenge in seeking to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together for meaningful talks but Trump's new plan sets out to do just that.
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