Palestine – Netanyahu sends clear message to Trump, Putin, May and UN
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has had a busy week meeting with UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson in Jerusalem, President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and then back to Jerusalem for a five-hour meeting with President Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations – Jason Greenblatt…writes David Singer.The framework for these meetings was set by Netanyahu – who told Johnson:
“It’s evident that we agree on most things, but not on all things. And one of the things, I think the source of it when you analyse a problem, get to its roots and reason that we haven’t had peace for a hundred years is not the settlements, but the persistent refusal to recognise a nation-state for the Jewish people in any boundary. I think if you want to solve a problem, go to the core of the problem, and that is something I look forward to discussing with you further.”
Netanyahu’s claim is substantiated by the following facts:
- Settlements were not the problem when the first two-state solution was proposed by article 25 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922.
That solution – which envisaged allocating the Arabs 78% of Mandatory Palestine [Transjordan] and the Jews the remaining 22% – was rejected by the Arabs but accepted by the Jews.
Iran – one of the 51 States then unanimously endorsing the Jewish people’s legal right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Palestine – now seeks to destroy the Jewish State in 2017.
- Settlements were not the problem in 1937 when the Peel Commission recommended partition of the territory of the Mandate into one Jewish State and one Arab State – again rejected by the Arabs but accepted by the Jews.
- Transjordan remained part of the Mandate for Palestine until Great Britain granted it independence on 22 March 1946. 78% of the Mandate territory was thus irrevocably transformed into an exclusive Arabs-only State contrary to article 5 of the Mandate.
- The United Nations recommendation to partition the remaining 22 % of the Mandate territory into one Arab State and one Jewish State in November 1947 was again rejected by the Arabs and accepted by the Jews – culminating in Western Palestine being invaded in May 1948 by six Arab armies and the forcible eviction of all Jews living in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
- Settlements were not the problem between 1948 and 1967 when another Arab State could have been created with the stroke of an Arab League pen in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza whilst not one Jew lived there.
- Offers by Israel in 2000/2001 and 2008 to another Arab State being created in Gaza and the West Bank were rejected by the Arabs.
- In December 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334 declared that the Jewish Quarter and Kotel in East Jerusalem, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem were “occupied Palestinian territory”.
UK and Russia shamefully failed to veto this Resolution.
- Gaza is ruled by Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organisation governs Areas A and B of the West Bank. Both have held onto power without holding elections since 2006. Both refuse to recognize a Jewish nation-state in any boundaries.
Johnson told Netanyahu:
“I first visited [Israel] when I was – as I never tire of telling you – when I was 18.”
Netanyahu should never tire of telling world leaders that the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict will not be resolved until the Arabs recognise the right of the Jewish people to their own independent State.
David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network
David,
All that you have written is an accurate recitation of historical fact. Up until today it has failed to move the ‘obstacle’ of non-recognition of a Jewish State.
Is there any sense that the broader World scene is having a ‘change effect’ in the Arab world with respect to Israel’s recognition? How has the election of new faces in America and Britain, (and hopefully the Netherlands shortly) impacted on possible change?
How much room is there for optimism in this regard? And at what cost to Israel?
The focus thus far appears to have been that Israel has to ‘give ground’ (metaphorically and physically) to achieve what the rest of the world takes for granted. i.e. peaceful co-existence with ones neighbours. Might that change?
Roy Sims
Roy
All is not completely doom and gloom.
First – some necessary facts:
1. Jordan and Egypt have had signed peace treaties with Israel since 1994 and 1979 respectively. Both of these countries were the last sovereign Arab States to occupy Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between 1948 and 1967. Had Egypt not brought the Six Day War on itself and had Jordan heeded Israel’s advice to stay out of that War they still may have been the occupants today.
2. In 1967 the PLO was not claiming sovereignty in the West Bank and Hamas had not even been created.
3. The two-state solution first envisaged by the 1922 Mandate for Palestine has already been completed in 95% of the territory of the Mandate by the creation of Jordan in 1946 – in 78% of the territory – and Israel in 1948 – in 17% of the territory.
4. Where the international community has stumbled was in genuinely believing the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2002 Bush Roadmap could end the Jewish-Arab conflict by creating another Arab State in the remaining 5% of the Mandate territory – Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza – where sovereignty still remains undetermined.
5. The Oslo/Bush Roadmap process has instead proved a resounding failure by failing to deliver despite negotiations extending over a period of 25 years – yet the international community have not been prepared to ditch it and look for alternative proposals.
6. There is one proposal staring them in the face that they need to look at – redrawing the international border between Jordan and Israel in direct negotiations that will see sovereignty finally allocated in the last 5% of the Mandate territory between Israel and Jordan – the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine.
7. The impediments to implementing such a solution are:
i. the PLO and Hamas
ii. Hezbollah and the myriad other terrorist groups seeking to eliminate Israel
iii. the apparent unwillinginess of organisations like the EU and the UN Security Council to admit they got it wrong for the last 25 years since embarking on the long Oslo trek to nowhere.
Second – How can that all change?
1. Jordan and Israel can immediately enter into direct negotiations to redraw their international border under the framework of their existing Treaty.
2. The Arab League can make it clear to PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah and the other terrorist groups that the Arab national interest lies in the Israel-Jordan negotiations proceeding to a successful outcome and that no action should be taken by them – armed confrontation or otherwise such as incitement and vilification – whilst those negotiations are on going.
3. UNRWA should be immediately disbanded and citizenship offered to Palestinian Arabs classified as refugees in the countries where they presently reside. Financial contributions to UNRWA should continue to be made to a fund administered by the UN Security Council and distributed by it to the host States to assist in the integration of the refugees into those host States and the closing of the camps.
4. Those presently financially contributing to the PLO and Hamas should now make their donations to the Arab League for it to disburse in the West Bank and Gaza for advancing the welfare and the benefit of the respective populations as it sees fit under a transparent scheme that shows where each dollar contributed has been directed and spent.
Trump has been speaking of a regional approach to resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict involving Jordan and Egypt – so the kind of change outlined above might well be on the horizon.
For the sake of both Jews and Arabs I hope it is.
And I join you in hope!