“The Trump administration cannot decide if its peace plan is an opening gambit to trigger a compromise or a fait accompli that precludes one. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in answering a question about Palestinian responses to the Plan said, ‘I hope they will then present a counteroffer if what’s presented isn’t acceptable.’ Fair enough, except that David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, declared that Israel can unilaterally annex territories allotted in the plan once a bilateral U.S.-Israeli panel finishes its work on defining, precisely, Israel’s boundaries.
“But if Israeli annexation is front-loaded and proceeds in the coming months, any Palestinian counter-offer would be pre-empted…”