The first details are beginning to emerge about the so-called “Kerry Plan” for Israel, which includes an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and a deal for Israel to keep settlement blocs and “compensate” the PA for the land.
The plan is also said to include the PA endorsing Israel as a “Jewish state” and abandoning the right of return for Palestinian refugees abroad, but was downplayed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted “Israel does not have to agree to anything the Americans present.”
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro also appeared to be trying to distance the US government from the plan, saying Kerry’s framework was effectively just a cobbled together collection of proposals made by Israel and the Palestinians during the talks so far with “very little” American authorship.
Analysts say that Kerry’s plan would likely collapse the Israeli coalition government, though with many far-right coalition members opposed to any deal in general, that’s true of any proposal that couches itself as involving “peace.”
