After then President Obama had clearly aligned himself with the Palestinians over Israel, but nevertheless still claimed to be a friend of Israel's, I wrote this: "No, if you were a true friend of Israel's Mr. Obama you would stop enabling the Palestinians' sense of victimhood and entitlement. You would tell them that there will never be a right of return for millions of descendants of the original refugees. You will tell them that Jerusalem will forever remain the undivided capital of Israel - and you will move the U.S. embassy there to prove that point. And you will tell them - no force them - to lay down their arms and recognize Israel as the sole Jewish state in the world. But...maybe you and I define friendship differently." (From the 6/7/15 post "Obama on Israel, Part II.) Now, President Trump, the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House, has done what I asked of Obama, and more.
The Trump peace plan envisions Israel keeping virtually all of Jerusalem as its capital. It gives no right of return to the descendants of Palestinian refugees. Israel gets to keep their "settlements" in the West Bank. Hamas and Islamic Jihad would have to disarm. And, to meet Israel's security concerns, Israel would retain control over the Jordan River Valley. And Israel must be recognized as the nation-state of the Jewish people. In exchange, the Palestinians get 70-80% of the West Bank, Gaza, and two additional areas of land out of Israel's Negev. If the Palestinians comply, they would receive $50 billion in economic aid.
Not surprisingly, the Palestinians immediately rejected the plan, as they have every other opportunity for peace. The mainstream media, and the Left generally, were highly critical of the plan. Notwithstanding their criticism, the New York Times editorial opined: "This could well be 'the last opportunity' for their own state that the Palestinians will ever have, as Mr. Trump warned, or at least the makings of the best deal they can expect." Bret Stephens, the anti-Trump but pro-Israel opinion writer at the New York Times, said: "The record of Arab-Israeli peace efforts can be summed up succinctly: Nearly every time the Arab side said no, it wound up with less." That, of course, is true. Had the Arabs accepted the UN partition plan of 1947, they would have had more territory than the Jews. However, they have chosen war after war after war.
The Arab League continues to be a huge disappointment, voting unanimously to reject the plan. Nothing has changed since the League met in Khartoum, Sudan following the 1967 Six Day War. Then, the League passed a resolution with "the three nos," - no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. If the Arab world will not join in pressuring the Palestinians to stop a hundred years of wars, then there is little hope that it will happen. In the meantime, the Palestinians continue to teach their school children to hate the Jews, and to encourage them to be martyrs. A Palestinian historian and archaeologist said this: "Jerusalem is the old walled city. The rest is not Jerusalem. We mean by Jerusalem - and I think everybody around the world means - the holy sites." Another Palestinian said: "Trump promised Jerusalem to the Jews. G-d promised it to us, and G-d is greater than Trump."
If control of Jerusalem is to be based on religious grounds, then bad news for the Arabs. G-d promised Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank territory) to the Jewish people long before there was an Al Aqsa Mosque or even Islam. When Jordan controlled the West Bank and Jerusalem between 1949 and 1967, Jewish holy sites were destroyed. Access to the Western Wall (the Kotel) was mostly denied. After Israel won the 1967 war and controlled Jerusalem, all religions have had access to their holy sites. Israel will never cede control of the Old City or Jerusalem, as it contains the holiest sites in Judaism.
Caroline Glick is an author and opinion writer, one of the best when it comes to analyzing events in the Middle East. She was an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) captain and on Israel's negotiating team in 1995 for the Oslo Accords. Notwithstanding the Palestinians' agreement, Glick says: "Beginning with the PLO's failure to amend its covenant that called for Israel's destruction in nearly every paragraph; through their refusal to abide by the limits they had accepted on the number of weapons and security forces they were permitted to field in the areas under their security control; their continuous breaches of zoning and building laws and regulations; to their constant Nazi-like anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement and solicitation of terrorism against Israel - it was self-evident they were negotiating in bad faith. They didn't want peace with Israel. They were using the peace process to literally take Israel apart piece by piece."
Now along comes President Trump, who refuses to reward the Palestinians for their bad behavior, after having turned down offer after offer. Nevertheless, what the plan does offer the Palestinians is a state of their own. But the Palestinians have proven time after time that they have no interest in having their own state if it means that Israel will also continue to exist.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote an article that appeared in the weekly Jewish Journal of Los Angeles (January 24-30,2020 edition). Rabbi Boteach wrote something that I can definitely relate to: "...the more I stood up for Israel, especially through ads in the media, the more my liberal friends and admirers began to desert me." I, too, will continue to stand up for Israel, notwithstanding the hostility i get in return. As much as I would like for there to be true peace between the Jews and Arabs, I cannot ignore reality. And that reality tells me that the Arabs have chosen war over peace for 100 years. As that one Palestinian said, G-d is greater than Trump. I agree. As G-d promised all the land of Israel, including the West Bank, to the Jews, the Jews should keep it. Let the Palestinians lay down their arms, then maybe there will be something to talk about.
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Excellent column and observations. The only peace plan the Palestinians will ever accept without continuing to attack Israel is the end of Israel. The Arab countries must have Israel as the enemy to keep control of their people. If they ever had peace, they would realize how their leaders have done nothing to create a prosperous culture. When in Israel and taking a Palestinian tax to see Bethlehem, I asked what he thought of their own leaders. I got something I did not expect. He said, "They are all crooks. The take money given to them to improve our people and deposit it in their Paris accounts. They do not deserve anyone's support."
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