“The Yesha Council umbrella group of settler leaders announced on Tuesday that it would oppose US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, hours before the White House was slated to unveil its details. ‘We are very troubled,’ said Yesha Council leader and Jordan Valley Regional Council Chairman David Elhayani in a statement after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with someone he referred to as a senior US official. ‘We cannot accept a plan that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would pose a threat to the State of Israel,’ he said. ‘We will also not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state, even if that means giving up on enacting sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley [for now],’ Elhayani added, acknowledging that the White House peace plan would allow for Israel to annex parts of the West Bank.”

“Settler leaders said they were ‘waiting patiently’ for US President Donald Trump’s unveiling of his peace plan on Tuesday, known as the Deal of the Century but had stressed the importance of Israeli sovereignty when speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They issued a statement to the media after meeting in Washington with Netanyahu, so they could be briefed personally about the details of the plan. ‘We came to strengthen the prime minister and to clearly present to the White House the voice of all the settlements,’ the settler leaders said. ‘It was important for us to hear the information in person rather than relying on rumors,’ they said.”

“Anxious to learn what this plan really contains, beyond the leaks released by the Israeli side in an attempt to placate them, several settler leaders are waiting behind the scenes in Washington. They will not let Netanyahu forget for a moment who’s the boss. With them, arm in arm, is the evangelical lobby. They too will tell Trump who’s the boss. So much is supposedly known already about this plan, through words and through action taken by this administration throughout its term. Both Trump and Netanyahu are such controversial figures, to say the least, that anything they present will be judged through this prism. People who hate them will immediately oppose the plan, those who like them will immediately support it. The Palestinians have already announced that they’ll throw the document in the garbage without reading it, whereas moderate Arab leaders who are close to the United States and supported by it will probably express their support. The settlers and evangelicals are the only ones who are leading rather than being led.”

“Peretz said that the Mideast plan could cause escalations in Gaza and the West Bank, and the committee must discuss and plan for this possibility. ‘We must examine the diplomatic and security measures and activities that will help preserve the calm and stability,’ he wrote…Reinforcements will focus on Palestinian towns Tummun and Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley, and not the Jordan border, according to military sources…In the West Bank, the Palestinian factions, including President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, also called for mass demonstrations on both Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday evening, protesters in the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem burned pictures of Trump and waved pictures of the Palestinian president.”

“The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and Gaza called on Palestinians on Monday to protest the Trump administration’s plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which is to be presented in Washington on Tuesday. In the Gaza Strip, the committee that has organized demonstrations along the Israeli border called for a resumption of protests along the border fence. The committee, which is comprised of various factions, called for a mass turnout on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

“‘We reject it and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights,’ Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said during a cabinet meeting in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday. ‘It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.’ Shtayyeh also said Trump and Netanyahu were using the announcement of the plan as a distraction from their domestic woes…’This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan,’ Shtayyeh said.”

“’A two-state solution cannot be born on the backs of unilateral actions from either side,’ House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee top Democrat Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a statement. ‘Unilateral actions do not contribute to a sustainable peace and would not serve US interests. Unilateral steps would make it harder to come back to the negotiating table and could set unrealistic and unachievable demands.’ The top Democrat on the House Middle East panel, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., also urged a return to ‘direct negotiations’ between the Israelis and Palestinians, warning against ‘unilateral action by either party that could damage the prospect for peace.’ Deutch noted that he’s been trying to get the White House to brief him on the closely held plan for two years.”

“From the standpoint of normal politics and diplomacy, such an approach seems misguided, even bizarre. However, diplomacy is not the goal. Rather, the primary aim of Trump’s Middle East plan, apart from distracting from his and Netanyahu’s domestic troubles, is to fundamentally redefine the basic terms of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement by effectively doing away with the possibility of a two-state solution and to consecrate the status quo of permanent Israeli occupation. Whether or not they are successful will in large part depend on whether Palestinian leaders can mount a credible counter strategy and the extent to which the international community, the U.S. Congress, and even Democratic presidential candidates will be willing to call it out.”

“Lara Friedman: There are many different political agendas served by the timing. Some of them are Trump’s, but I actually think more of them are Netanyahu’s. However, the bottom line is that the Trump administration came into office with a clearly articulated agenda and objective on Israel. That objective was not negotiating a two-state solution. In fact, every single policy from this administration points toward a single objective: permanent Israeli control between the river and the sea — and the administration is pretty open about that. What’s baffling is people’s shock and surprise as they get a sense of what will probably be issued this week. I think people want to disbelieve what this administration says about itself.”

“As interior minister, I’m telling you that on the municipal side, we’re already starting to prepare the administrative work. There are many challenges that must be dealt with,” Deri said while visiting the Jordan Valley with members of his ultra-Orthodox Shas party. In his Monday comments, Deri chastised the right-wing Yamina party’s ‘impatience’ after its leader, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, said Sunday his party would oppose the Trump peace plan if it did not include immediate annexation of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. ‘By trying to have it all, you could lose it all,’ Deri warned, urging fellow right-wingers to ‘be patient, so we don’t miss this opportunity just for the sake of another headline. No one wants what is good for Israel as much as Netanyahu, and it’s important to know when to keep quiet. I trust Netanyahu very much. I don’t know the details [of the plan], so unlike some others, I’m not saying anything about it’.”

“’They’re trying to drive Al-Araqib’s residents into despair and they’re not succeeding,’ said Abu Mdeghem’s son, Aziz. ‘But they’re adding more and more pressure.’ Aziz, who was attending a weekly protest against the demolitions of the village, added that the state upped its oppression around the time that his father was released from a 10-month prison sentence late last year, after Israeli authorities…Over the past decade, the village has become a symbol of Palestinian sumud (steadfastness) and resistance to efforts to expel the Bedouin from their land. After every demolition, the residents rebuild their tents and shacks, which the state views as a fresh offense. Al-Araqib is one of the 37 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Naqab. The villages are neither connected to utilities such as water and electricity, nor do they receive municipal services, and do not have access to a local school or medical clinic.”

“Israeli settlers set fire to a classroom last night in the occupied West Bank village of Einabus, in the latest apparent ‘price tag’ attack on Palestinian communities, students and teachers told Middle East Eye. Rateb Nassar, the deputy headmaster of the affected school, told MEE that Israeli settlers came from the nearby illegal settlement of Yitzhar, and threw burning materials inside one of the classrooms. The assailants also spray-painted racist and anti-Arab slogans on the walls, threatening to kill Palestinians and burn their properties, he added. ‘This is the most dangerous attack the school has witnessed, and it indicates that more settler attacks are to come,’ Nassar said.”

“Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will join forces Tuesday in a rare meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah against US President Donald Trump’s long-awaited peace plan, Palestinian officials said. ‘We invited the Hamas movement to attend the emergency meeting of the leadership and they will take part in the meeting,’ senior Palestinian official Azzam al-Ahmed said.”

“Mohammed Abu Jayab, editor of economic newspaper Al-Eqtesadia in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, ‘The [effort to establish] a central bank lacks several tools that are quite necessary, [especially] a local currency. Also, the Palestinian economy is suffering from structural distortion amid an inability to control Palestinian land, air, and seaports. Add to this that local banks are concerned there might be a hidden agenda behind establishing a central bank, which is to control and acquire local banks.’ Shawa’s announcement sparked divergent opinions among Palestinian economic experts, who said Jan. 19 in separate interviews with Al-Najah news that Israel isn’t likely to approve of this step, which requires Palestinian political independence to begin with. And in the event the central bank is announced without a Palestinian national currency, then the bank will be stillborn and will only amount to a political statement.”

“A mid-level Hamas official recently spoke out against the terror group in a rare public criticism, arguing a policy document it issued in almost over two years ago seeking to broadcast a more moderate image, failed to open doors to the West. Ahmad Yousif, who was an adviser to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh when he served as Palestinian Authority prime minister, is considered to be a moderate figure in the terror group…Yousif contended that the Hamas policy document came out ‘late’ and that ‘no one paid attention to it. The changes were big,’ Yousif told the Independent Arabia news site in an interview published last week, referring to the document. ‘But the West did not deal with it. The reason is Hamas itself — because it was late in announcing it,’ he said, stating it should have been published in 2006, when Hamas briefly led the PA, rather than 2017.”

“Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu announced he was withdrawing his request for immunity from prosecution in the three corruption cases, in which he is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust…Netanyahu’s decision allowed Israel’s attorney general to file the indictment with the Jerusalem District Court, instead of having to wait for the conclusion of immunity deliberations in the Israeli parliament. It also means Netanyahu won’t be able seek protection from prosecution again in any of the three cases.”

“Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday filed the indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust with the Jerusalem District Court…The move marks the first time in Israel’s history that a serving prime minister will face criminal charges, casting a heavy shadow over Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, his legacy and his ongoing attempts to remain in power.”