Earlier administrations, he stated, had struggled merely to carry the Palestinians to the bargaining desk. Ready for the Palestinians to comply with talks earlier than transferring ahead gave them a veto over the method, Mr. Friedman stated, which solely inspired them to undertake unreasonable calls for.
“A flood of refugees into Israel? By no means going to occur,” he stated. “Dividing Jerusalem? It’s simply by no means going to occur. Israel giving up sure components of its biblical heartland? By no means going to occur.”
He stated the White Home had “injected a tremendously wanted dose of realism into the Palestinian psyche about what’s achievable and what’s not.”
The Palestinians beg to vary.
Husam Zomlot, who headed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington till it was closed, stated Mr. Friedman’s sense of his accomplishments was delusional. Removed from enhancing American affect on the battle, he stated, Mr. Friedman had diminished it practically to nil, all however destroying hopes for a two-state answer.
“He was the American mob in our Capitol,” he stated, alluding to the latest rebellion in Washington. “Similar logic, identical habits. That’s Friedman. And simply as Congress did, the Biden administration should wipe the ground of U.S.-Palestinian relations and the peace course of fully clear.”
Mr. Friedman asserted that the Trump peace plan, by setting necessities of monetary transparency, human rights and different norms for the Palestinians to achieve statehood, was really “a present to the Palestinian individuals” that will make their “high quality of life way more bearable.” Israel’s warming relations with Arab states, he contended, would “open up the creativeness of the Palestinians to what may very well be.”
He additionally insisted that the Trump administration by no means sought to help Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election campaigns — although its recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, to call one plum broadly perceived as a marketing campaign present, got here simply two weeks earlier than the primary of these votes.