Netanyahu calls Trump's Middle East deal 'historic opportunity'

A long-awaited Middle East peace plan that US President Donald Trump is finally expected to present early this week is a "historic" opportunity that must not be missed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Critics charge that the timing of the unveiling - ahead of March 2 elections and while Israel's parliament was due to debate Netanyahu's request for immunity against criminal charges - amounted to US meddling in internal Israeli politics in favour of Netanyahu.

The Palestinian leadership have said that any proposal from the Trump administration is dead on arrival, repeatedly denouncing the president as having clearly taken Israel's side.

The "deal of the century" was an opportunity that occurred "only once in history, and we must not miss it," Netanyahu said before taking off to Washington.

Netanyahu is due to meet Trump on Monday and on Tuesday, Israel Radio reported, quoting an official who asked to remain anonymous.

The prime minister said the plan had been in preparation "over the past three years." He hinted it would heed "vital" Israeli "national and security needs."

Netanyahu's main political opponent, former military chief Benny Gantz, took off at dawn on Sunday for a separate meeting with Trump on Monday morning - after the centrist leader declined Trump's invitation for a three-way summit including Netanyahu.

Gantz did not wish to play "second fiddle" to Netanyahu, his aides said.

The Trump-Gantz meeting will be closed to the press. The White House will distribute documentation of the meeting at its close, a statement from Gantz said.

No Palestinian leaders are expected to be at the talks at the White House. Trump said previously he had spoken "briefly" with the Palestinians.

US Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday that Trump had invited Netanyahu to the White House to discuss "the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land" - after months of speculation that the Trump plan would be unveiled soon.

The timing of the unveiling of the Trump plan had been complicated by the two general elections held in Israel last year and an unprecedented third election in March.

Gantz, of the centrist Blue and White faction, plans to return on Tuesday, in time for discussions in Israel's Knesset for Netanyahu's request for immunity against charges in three corruption cases. A majority in the current Knesset opposes heeding Netanyahu's request, which is why Gantz hopes to advance a vote on it before the March 2 election.

Gantz said late Saturday the content of conversations he had held about the Trump plan with White House officials "will remain secret for now."

Israeli media, however, have reported that under the plan, Israel would receive a US green light to annex the Jordan Valley and most of its West Bank settlements. A Palestinian state would be founded in part of the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Gaza Strip, captured from Egypt in the same war, would be demilitarized.

Israel's biggest-selling Yediot Ahronot daily, seen as critical of Netanyahu, said that Gantz, by demanding a separate meeting with Trump, seemed "to have escaped the worst possible scenario - joining Netanyahu's PR (election) campaign as an extra."

Commentators in the daily accused Trump, with the timing of the unveiling of his plan, of "throwing a lifeline to a prime minister who is under three indictments."

The Israeli military was preparing for possible Palestinian protests against the plan.

Trump has repeatedly sided with Israel by upending decades of US policy, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the relocation of the US embassy to the contested city from Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu was also under fire from the far-right in Israel, which said that it would support no Palestinian state under any circumstances.