Biden and Bennett need to jointly adopt or dump Trump Peace Plan
President Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett need to jointly decide on whether to adopt or dump President Trump’s Peace Plan (Trump’s Plan) during their White House meeting on 26 August.
Trump’s Plan (see diagrams following) provides a political and economic path to creating for the first time in recorded history “AFuture State of Palestine” between Jordan, Israel and Egypt – or – if rejected – offers the tantalising possibility of extending Jordanian and Egyptian sovereignty – in:
- 70% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank),
- All of Gaza and
- Land currently located within the internationally-recognized boundaries of Israel
Trump summarised his vision:
“The plan designates defensible borders for the State of Israel and does not ask Israel to compromise on the safety of its people, affording them overriding security responsibility for land west of the Jordan River. For Palestinians, the Vision delivers significant territorial expansion, allocating land roughly comparable in size to the West Bank and Gaza for establishing a Palestinian State. Transportation links would allow efficient movement between Gaza and the West Bank, as well as throughout a future Palestine. The plan does not call for uprooting any Israelis or Palestinians from their homes.”
A joint US-Israeli Mapping Committee established in February 2020 to map the precise area of Judea and Samaria in which Israeli sovereignty was to be extended (approximately 30%) had apparently not concluded its deliberations when Trump left the White House in January 2021.
Israel’s then Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu – endorsed Trump’s Plan.
The Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas rejected Trump’s Plan outright but the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco seemingly accepted its political and economic goals when subsequently normalizing their relationships with Israel.
Biden’s seven months tenure as President has already seen unprecedented chaos and confusion in America’s internal and external relations following Biden’s unilateral dumping of three major Trump policies without consulting individuals, state or foreign Governments affected by such changes:
- Ceasing construction of Trump’s security fence on America’s southern border – facilitating increased unauthorised and illegal entry of aliens into the US.
CNN reported on this continuing crisis on 13 August:
“The Biden administration is facing a “serious challenge” at the US southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday, saying the US has encountered an “unprecedented” number of migrants illegally crossing the border.
During a news conference in Brownsville, Texas, Mayorkas stressed the sharp increase of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border, many of whom are fleeing deteriorating conditions in their home countries.”
- Blocking completion of the Keystone XL pipeline (costing 11000 jobs) and reviewing oil-exploration leases granted by Trump in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – reversing hallmark policies of Trump’s administration championing the oil industry by promoting oil-exploration projects in the interests of securing US energy independence.
- Ditching Trump’s plans for a conditions-based orderly American withdrawal from Afghanistan and replacing it with an unconditional withdrawal – leaving behind billions of dollars of American sophisticated and highly-secret military equipment, up to 15000 American civilians, and thousands of Afghani civilians who helped the US military – and their families – at the mercy of the anti-US Taliban terrorist militants taking over Afghanistan.
Biden cannot – after these disastrous unilateral policy decisions – dump Trump’s Plan without Bennett’s approval.
Trump’s Plan – the most comprehensive and detailed plan ever prepared by an American President for dividing sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between Arabs and Jews – remains the best way forward for ending the unresolved 100 years Jewish-Arab conflict.
Trump’s Plan – and his vision for peace – will surely be hovering over Biden and Bennett when they face-off in their White House meeting this week.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.
All these plans are only words unless there is action on them.
The Trump Plan had some good points and its implementation was conditional upon its acceptance by the Palestinian Arabs within a limited time span. That way, it was a non-starter, so its explicit rejection is superfluous. As well, it was only a proposal, not an agreement or a treaty. Israel’s security is too important to bring US party politics into the argument.
The serious issues Bennett needs to get Sleepy Joe to wake up to are: stopping the Iranians getting the bomb; stopping US pressure on Israel for a two-state “solution” that the Arabs reject; calling a halt to the illegal attempt to set up a de facto embassy to “Palestine” in Jerusalem; maintaining Israel’s military qualitative edge by ignoring the squawking of The Squad and other radical leftists.
Paul
Its news to me that Trump’s plan was conditional on its acceptance by the Palestinian Arabs within a limited time span.
What was that limited time span? Who imposed it?
What is the source for this claim by you?
The beauty of Trump’s plan was that it would define the areas of Jewish and Arab sovereignty to be allocated in Judea and Samaria without both groups having to necessarily move in lockstep with each other to bring it to fruition.
The Arab area would remain reserved until some Arab entity – perhaps Jordan and/or Egypt – sought to claim sovereignty over it – especially if the Palestinian Arabs continue to maintain their initial rejection of Trump’s proposed conditions for the creation of a “Future Palestinian State”.