The plan had been characterized as requiring too few concessions from the Israelis and imposing too harsh requirements on the Palestinians. Reactions among congressional Democrats were mixed, and all the leading Democratic 2020 presidential candidates denounced it as a "smokescreen" for annexation.J Street, "It's Not a Peace Plan, It's an Annexation Smokescreen", "If there was ever any doubt that the Trump-Netanyahu 'peace plan' was anything other than a smokescreen for annexation, it was disabused just moments after the plan's glitzy White House announcement." Proposed benefits to the Palestinians from the plan are contingent on Israel and the United States subsequently agreeing that a list of conditions have been implemented, including total demilitarization, abandonment of international legal action against Israel and the United States and compliance "with all the other terms and conditions" of the 180-page plan. Many of these conditions have been denounced by opponents of the plan as "impossible" or "fantastic." The plan proposed a series of Palestinian enclaves surrounded by an enlarged Israel, and rejected a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem proper, proposing instead a Palestinian capital on the outskirts of the city. The proposed areas for the Palestinian capital have been described as "grim neighborhoods" and are separated from Jerusalem proper by the Israeli West Bank barrier. Many Israeli settlers have expressed discontent and concern with the plan's security assurances.
