Reactions from Israeli Leaders to Trump’s Peace Sham

Many Israeli politicians and members of the Israeli security establishment have spoken out against the Trump 'plan.'

We will regularly update this page with statements of opposition.

 

Major General (Ret.) Nitzan Alon: “This is not a peace plan, it is a one-party plan, the prospect for violence has increased”


Yair Golan | Member of Knesset (Democratic Union):  This isn’t a peace plan and this isn’t a Deal of the Century. This is an alliance between two criminal suspects who’ve conjured up a plan that compromises our security and our future. Annexation will cost us dearly.


Nitzan Horowitz | Member of Knesset (Meretz): Netanyahu has no mandate to make any move, and certainly not annex significant parts of the territories. Such annexation is a devastating move. On the eve of an election, as a transit prime minister prosecuting serious crimes, he and his government have no legitimacy to annex even one acre unilaterally. Only the government that will emerge after the election can handle the American plan.


Joseph Jabarin | Member of Knesset (Joint List): The “Deal of the Century” is not even a deal. There is no one-party deal — the Palestinians weren’t even invited, and no deal begins with annexation. At the summit this evening at the White House, those who have no ownership in the land make promises to those who have no right.”


Meretz Party:  The so-called “Deal of the Century” announced by Trump-Netanyahu duo is a catastrophic move, primarily because it is unfeasible and therefore a mere spectacle staged for their own benefit.

Moreover, Netanyahu’s upcoming legislation blitz could find Israelis, Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, and even Jews in the Diaspora facing unilateral steps adopted by a caretaker government that does not enjoy electoral approval.

Decisions on the plan could bring about the collapse of Israel’s peace treaties with its neighbors, damage its international status, destroy the principle of a Jewish-democratic state underlying the Zionist idea, and even drag us into a nightmare: the creation of a bi-national and apartheid state and the legitimization of illegal settlements in contravention of international law in a move liable to lead to terrible bloodshed.

There is not now and there will never be a substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the basis of a two-state solution (a key principle in the Trump plan) and the eschewal of any unilateral moves.

We call on world Jewry to raise their voice against a sham “peace plan” that is liable to hurt Israel’s relations with the nations of the world.


Ayman Odeh | Member of Knesset/Chair (Joint List): Bibi and Trump’s annexation and transfer plan includes a green light to deny the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Arabs in the Triangle. Fighting this disrupted racism by all means. Every citizen, Arab and Jewish, who believes in democracy and peace, must resist this dangerous plan.”


Ayman Odeh | Member of Knesset/Chair (Joint List): We need to speak to @realDonaldTrump in his own language: Bad deal. VERY BAD. No peace with annexation. CORRUPT BIBI doesn’t want peace. CHEATING TRUMP doesn’t want peace. They only care about HASINUT!!!! Sad.


Amir Peretz | Member of Knesset (Labor): Our position is clear: We see the importance of the US as a mediator between us and the Palestinians, but the end of unilateral measures is to deepen hostility and undermine security


Major General (Ret). Gadi Shamni: This plan has several problematic aspects… this will become a state of fences, cement walls, and corridors that are heavily guarded; settlements under siege. (Radio interview)


Meir Sheetrit | Former Justic Minister and Member of Knesset (Likud): It’s a joke. Seriously? Do you really believe that it’s a peace plan? […] I fear that this plan could cause chaos in the State of Israel.


Itzik Shmuli | Member of Knesset (Labor):  The “Deal of the Century” is a fraud of the century that will not lead to peace but to unilateral annexation and incitement. The immediate permission to annex vast territories and isolated, non-security justified settlements undermines the important recognition of the 2-state solution, denies any chance of separation and results in a fatal demand for one state that violates our national and security interests. So, Trump won’t be there to absorb its implications. As a possible negotiating platform, the plan also includes positive elements that pertain to Israeli positions regarding the core issues and security needs, but the green light for annexation eliminates any possibility to view this as a basis for negotiations. Netanyahu in his current legal position, and certainly when there is no elected government, has no mandate to accept fateful decisions of any kind and this must be postponed until after the elections.


Ahmad Tibi | Member of Knesset (Ta’al): MK Ahmad Tibi, chairman of the joint list faction, on the century deal: This is an active joining the Likud election campaign. There has never been such a mobilization and intervention of a foreign party in Israeli elections with the agreement of both parties. Presenting the century deal may be a gift to the settlers, but a recipe for continuing the conflict and exacerbating it.


Tamar Zandberg | Member of Knesset (Meretz):  A plan that enables unilateral annexation is not a peace plan but a safe recipe for peace and danger to security. A peace plan should be achieved in negotiations for two states between Israel and the Palestinians and not an election. A select government must immediately launch such negotiations to change its direction from life on the sword to a future of peace and security.


Giliead Sher | Former Chief of Staff, Ehud Barak: There are a lot of calls for annexation. The true meaning is a departure from the basic vision of Israel as a Jewish, democratic, safe and moral state.


Amos Yadlin | Former IDF Intelligence Chief: It is not a peace plan, and I am not sure that it is even a basis for a peace plan.