UN: End the jaw-jaw – use Trump to redraw the Israel-Jordan border
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demonstrated that the UN has learnt nothing about resolving the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict when he addressed the gabfest held by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (Inalienable Rights Committee) in New York on 8 February.
Guterres could only repeat the failed UN mantra once again:
“The goal remains two States — Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian State — living side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of both States. There is no plan B.”
No plan B? Is Guterres that blinkered?
Guterres is ignoring the possibilities opened up by the most comprehensive plan ever presented for resolving this long-running conflict: President Trump’s 28 January 2020 Peace Plan (see following map) – released in the presence of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and the ambassadors from three Arab nations – Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Trump’s plan was openly embraced by Netanyahu:
“A great plan for Israel, a great plan for peace”
Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Mahmoud Abbas refuses to negotiate with Israel on Trump’s Plan:
“I say to Trump and Netanyahu: Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain. And your deal, the conspiracy, will not pass,”
President Trump declared his plan:
“a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security.”
Guterres and the UN’s monolithic Jew-bashing Tower of Babble:
- The General Assembly
- The Security Council
- The UN Human Rights Committee
- UNRWA
- UNESCO
- The Inalienable Rights Committee
- The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)
- United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine
- The Working Group on the Financing of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
- Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
- Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting Human Rights of Palestinian People and Other Arabs of Occupied Territories
have preferred to wring their collective hands, sit back and record the escalating violence between Arabs and Jews – issuing reams of reports condemning Israel for what is happening – yet taking no action to try and end that violence and eliminate the need for many of these voyeur groups to exist.
The UN Security Council needs to urgently activate the following Plan B:
- Call on Israel and the PLO to negotiate on the basis of Trump’s Plan – and in default of their agreeing to do so
- Call on Israel and Jordan to redraw their current agreed international boundary – designated in the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace Treaty – by dividing sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between their two States – based on Trump’s Plan
About 70% of these territories will in either scenario be returned to Arab sovereignty after an absence of 55 years. No Arab or Jew will have to leave his current home.
The UN is charged under Article 1 of its own Charter:
“To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace”
Time for the UN to end the jaw-jaw and facilitate redrawing the Israel-Jordan border using Trump’s Plan.
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.
