INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Israeli security forces have clashed with Palestinian worshippers as they arrived at Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa
mosque.Palestinian leaders had, last week, called for mass attendance at dawn prayers at holy sites in Jerusalem as well as throughout the
West Bank and Gaza.Image:Mike Pence and Benjamin Netanyahu at the Western WallBut tensions spiked around the mosque, which is located in
Jerusalem's old city on what Israel calls Temple Mount, as news leaked on Thursday night of the contents of Donald Trump's "peace plan" for
the region.The American president has indicated that his long-awaited plan for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians will be released
before Tuesday next week.The content of his so-called "deal of the century" has been the subject of much speculation for months having been
moulded in secret by his son-in-law Jared Kushner and a small policy team inside the White House.On Thursday, on a visit to Jerusalem, US
Vice President Mike Pence invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz to Washington to discuss the
peace plan.Speaking to reporters on a flight to Florida, the US president said the plan will be released before the Tuesday
meeting."Sometime prior to that Probably we'll release it a little bit prior to that." Mr Trump said.He dismissed leaked details of the
plan's contents as "purely speculative".Image:The mosque is on what Israel calls Temple MountIn the leaks to the Israeli media, it is
suggested that the plan will propose that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank would become sovereign Israeli territory.Israeli
sovereignty would also be given to the whole of Jerusalem with the city being officially recognised as the Israeli capital.Palestinians
would be granted statehood but only on condition that they recognise Jerusalem as being the capital of the Jewish State of Israel and
subject to Gaza being demilitarised with Hamas giving up its weapons.For the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, the
plan will be entirely unreasonable and will be rejected outright
No Palestinians have been invited to next week's White House meeting.Mr Trump indicated that he had had limited discussion with the
Palestinians and predicted that, initially at least, they would reject it.He said: "We've spoken to them briefly
But we will speak to them in a period of time And they have a lot of incentive to do it
I'm sure they maybe will react negatively at first but it's actually very positive for them.Image:Donald Trump says he loves 'doing
deals'"I'd love to be able to do that deal
They say that's the hardest of all deals I love doing deals."It's a great plan
It's a plan that really would work."Internationally, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal.The United Nations, the
European Union and the UK all continue to call for a two-state solution with Israel based on 1967 borders with agreed land swaps and with
Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states.The calculus in Mr Trump's White House is that the two-state solution in its existing
proposed form has cemented a stalemate stretching back nearly three decades and that shifting the dial, albeit in Israel's favour, prompts a
new, fresh conversation.The plan will also shift the political dial in Israel as Israelis prepare to go to the polls for the third time in
Two elections last year were inconclusive.EU and Arab states have not yet said how they will react to the plan but they are likely to reject
it as not providing for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.
