Image by Onur Burak Akın.

Two years into Israel’s destruction, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza, Donald Trump rolled out a 20-point proposal, hyped as a path to peace. Arab and Muslim leaders rushed to give their unqualified blessing. Standing right next to Trump, however, Benjamin Netanyahu delivered only a “conditional” endorsement, so riddled with caveats it gutted the plan before the ink was dry.

Predictably, the U.S. administration and the managed American media applauded Israel’s supposed acceptance, without any critical review of Netanyahu’s crippling conditions. We’ve seen this script before. Back in 2003, when George W. Bush introduced his “Road Map,” media headlines screamed about Ariel Sharon’s acceptance. What went largely unreported was that Sharon and his cabinet had attached 14 reservations that essentially veered the plan off the road.

The pattern is unmistakable. In every so-called proposal for peace, Israel secures immediate, tangible gains, such as Palestinian recognition of Israel under the Oslo Accord, with a mere promise to recognize Palestine at some vague point in the “foreseeable” future. More than three decades later, that future never arrived.

In my column earlier this week, I warned that Netanyahu would inject “a poison pill to undermine Trump’s plan from within.” It didn’t take long. As Axios reported, Arab leaders were “furious” when Netanyahu rewrote critical........

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