Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and coordinator of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco. Zunes's article is found at: https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-israel-palestine-peace-plan-violates-international-law/
"Donald Trump's long-awaited 'deal of the century' between Israel and Palestine essentially gives Israel's far right coalition government everything it wanted. This Middle East 'peace deal' allows Israel to annex vast stretches of the Palestinian West Bank (which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967) into Israel, including all of the illegal Jewish-only settlements in areas colonized by Israeli settlers as well as Arab East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Palestinians would be granted limited autonomy in a series of largely urban enclaves surrounded by the expanded borders of Israel, with Israel still controlling Palestinian borders, immigration, security, airspace, aquifers and the electromagnetic spectrum.
Indeed, Trump's proposals for Israel and Palestine bears remarkable resemblance to the notorious Bantustan system of apartheid South Africa.
The United Nations and UN Security Council resolutions -- which previous U.S. administrations insisted were to be the basis of a peace settlement -- explicitly forbid any nation from expanding its territory by military force, But Trump's proposal allows Israel to do just that. In addition, the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits any occupying power from transferring its civilian population onto territories seized by military force. United Nations Security Council resolutions have explicitly recognized the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention to Israeli-occupied territories, as does a landmark 2004 decision by the International Court of Justice.
Trump now insists that Israel's illegal occupation of these territories is, in fact, legal.
The proposal was praised not only by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,who is currently under indictment on multiple charges of corruption,but also by his supposedly more 'moderate' rival, Benny Gantz, who called Trump's plan 'a significant and historic milestone,' and 'immediately after the elections I will work toward implementing it.'
Not all Israelis were supportive, however, Hagal El-Ad, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, noted how the future for Palestinians under the plan 'is not rights or a state, but a permanent state of Apartheid. No amount of marketing can erase this disgrace or blur the facts.'
Similarly, Nimrod Novik, a former aide to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who engaged in years of negotiations with the Palestinians,said, 'It's worse than any of us could anticipate.'
Trump's plan essentially gives the green light to unilateral Israeli annexation of large swathes of occupied territory, which would bring worldwide condemnation, but the Trump administration has promised to veto any initiatives at the United Nations to criticize such a flagrant violation of the UN Charter."
ADDENDUMS:
*The Hill-Harris X survey finds 58% of respondents said Trump acted improperly, compared to 42% who said he acted properly in the assassination of Qassem Solemiani.
*The White House on January 9, issued sweeping changes to one of the bedrock environmental laws relieving agencies from considering climate change when they assess the environmental impacts of key infrastructure projects. The 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires agencies to evaluate how pipelines, highways, and some oil and gas developments affect the environment and nearby communities.
*A University of Massachusetts poll found that only 12% of Americans said their families had "benefited a great deal from recent economic growth," and only 18% said that middle-class families had "benefited a lot" from Trump's economic policies.
* Alan Dershowitz said, 22 years ago, that if a president "corrupts the office," abuses trust," and "poses a great danger to our liberty," he has committed impeachable offenses. Now he requires a violation of a specific law.
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