UN action on Trump Peace Plan can deter Iran-Israel conflict
The United Nations Security Council needs to urgently adopt former US President Donald Trump’s 2020 Peace Plan to end the Jewish-Arab conflict and call on Israel, Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to commence negotiations under Trump’s Plan to deter conflict between Iran and Israel.
Trump’s Plan (see maps following) – already endorsed by Israel – provides for:
- The creation of a future demilitarised State of Palestine in about 60% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Gaza, and parts of Israel and
- The extension of Israeli sovereignty in the remaining 40% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)
The territory involved is small – comprising the remaining 5% of former Palestine in which sovereignty remains unallocated between Arabs and Jews – approximating America’s third-smallest State – Delaware.
Israel (17%) and Jordan (78%) currently exercise sovereignty in the other 95%.
The PLO has rejected Trump’s very detailed and comprehensive proposals.
The UN continues to pursue a nebulous two-democratic-states solution based on Security Council Resolution 2334 – achieving no progress since its adoption in 2016.
Emboldened by the Security Council’s failure to successfully implement Resolution 2334 and the antagonistic attitude towards Israel and the Jewish People expressed in a growing number of General Assembly resolutions – 17 in 2020 compared to 7 for the rest of the world – Iran continues to demonise and threaten the elimination of Israel as Iran expands its nuclear weapons program.
Iranian Armed Forces spokesman – Brig.-Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi – recently told the Iranian Students News Agency:
“We will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, even one millimetre. We want to destroy Zionism in the world”
Rather than:
- condemning Iran’s threats to destroy another UN member state and
- defending Israel’s right to exist in secure and recognised boundaries as stipulated in UN Security Council Resolution 242
– the General Assembly has been engaging in its own demonisation of the Jewish People – recycling a Security Council Press Statement dated 17 September 2015 (Press Statement ) which only referred to the Temple Mount by its Arabic name “Haram al-Sharif” and not its Hebrew name “Har HaBayit”.
General Assembly Resolution A/76/L.16 (Resolution) – passed on 1 December – repeated this highly-offensive canard:
“Recalling the Security Council press statement on Jerusalem of 17 September 2015, in which the Council called, inter alia, for the exercise of restraint, refraining from provocative actions and rhetoric and upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif – in word and in practice, as well as for full respect for international law, including international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as may be applicable in Jerusalem”
The Press Statement and Resolution both failed to acknowledge the special role of Jordan – not Israel – as custodian of all the Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem – recognized in the 1994 Jordan-Israel Washington Declaration and Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty.
If the Security Council and General Assembly can both brazenly ignore these two highly-significant binding international commitments whilst simultaneously denying the Jewish People’s connection with Judaism’s holiest religious site in Jerusalem – what message does this send to Israel, Jordan and Iran?
Israel’s President Herzog has provided Israel’s response:
“Israel will welcome a comprehensive, diplomatic solution which permanently solves the Iranian nuclear threat.”
“In the case of a failure to achieve such a solution, Israel is keeping all options on the table and it must be said that if the international community does not take a vigorous stance on this issue — Israel will do so. Israel will protect itself”
Overt UN bias against Israel and the Jewish People should not preclude the UN from embracing Trump’s Plan to end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict and avert conflict between Iran and Israel.
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.
