Official PA news ridicules Israeli Minister Yair Lapid’s economic plan for Gaza, which is like "filling a strainer with water”
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Lapid’s plan: To fill a strainer with water!”
“It appears clear and unambiguous that the new government of the racist colonialist occupation system, Israel, is adopting the humanitarian economic solution. Thus it is lining up with the gist of the plan of Balfour the Second, [former US President] Donald Trump, which is known as ‘the deal of the century’ (see note below -Ed.)…
[Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s equation was as follows: Suitcases of money to Hamas in exchange for quiet along the electric barbed-wire fence and the wall that the occupation (i.e., Israel) established to defend the settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip (i.e., Israeli towns). [Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs] Yair Lapid’s equation is not fundamentally different from Netanyahu’s equation, and is only different in name and in some of the means…
Yair thinks that it is possible to rehabilitate the ‘temporary state’ plan (refers to interim agreements that do not deal with political issues or final status agreements -Ed.), and thus he looks like a fool who is attempting to fill a strainer with water, and like someone who does not understand the principles of the Palestinian people… as if he were at the North Pole, disconnected from the world. Yair the novice thinks that the PA and Egypt will serve as pawns for his [occupation] system in order to implement the plan of his baseless dreams! …
Yair Lapid… did not include any mention in his plan of how he comprehends the independent Palestinian state. On the contrary, he removed any doubt about the policy of his coalition with [Israeli Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett when he explicitly noted in his plan: 'The solution that is presented here does not address the two-state solution. The political conditions in Israel and in the PA do not allow for diplomatic progress to be achieved at the moment, but in Gaza we can – and must – act now.’”
In presenting his plan for economic aid to the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12, 2021, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid said: “The political conditions – in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority – don’t allow for diplomatic progress at the moment, but in Gaza we can, and we should, act now… The solution presented here doesn’t address the two-state solution, but my opinion on the matter is well known: Israel needs to act to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and to negotiate with it with an aim of achieving a two-state solution.”
The Trump peace plan – US President Donald Trump announced his Israel–Palestinian peace plan "Peace to Prosperity" – commonly known as “the deal of the century” - on Jan. 28, 2020. Main points of the plan: 1- Israeli sovereignty would be applied to the Jordan Valley and all Israeli towns and cities in the West Bank. 2- Jerusalem, including all its holy sites, would remain under Israeli sovereignty with accommodations made to enable access for Palestinians. 3- The remainder of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and part of what is currently Israeli land in the Negev, the Galilee, and Jerusalem - creating a territory almost equal in size to the West Bank and Gaza Strip - would form the Palestinian state, with its capital in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that are outside of Israel's security wall. 4- The Palestinian state would be demilitarized, with Israel responsible for external security and controlling all airspace. 5- All Palestinian prisoners except murderers, and those who attempted or conspired to murder would be released. 6- Palestinians in refugee camps would be absorbed into their host countries and, subject to certain limitations, into the Palestinian state. 7- Before becoming a state, the Palestinians would have to carry out extensive reform of their laws and institutions, including implementing a new governing system; granting its people due process and basic human rights and freedoms; end all incitement to and incentivizing of terror; end all glorification of terror and martyrdom; disarm Hamas; and adopt a culture promoting peace. The goal of the plan is to create a Palestinian state beside Israel, living in peace and security. The implementation would be facilitated through extensive international investment.