It had to happen eventually. Finally, someone has posted something about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I can agree with. In this case it’s Hussein Ibish at Bloomberg and here it is:
The stage is perfectly set for Abbas to present a bold new Palestinian vision for peace with Israel. The easy, and wrong, thing to do—and going by his track record, what he is most likely to do—would be to simply frame the Palestinian position as a vague, two-state formula based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. This was exactly the position he took at the UN last year, but times have changed dramatically.
A reprise of that speech might be politically popular with Palestinians, where Abbas would be seen as sticking to their national talking points. But it would achieve nothing for them: the Trump plan has already altered the political landscape, and it may not be long before Israeli annexation irreversibly changes facts on the ground too.
I don’t entirely agree with his assessment of the Europeans or Arab League. Other than being a cause célèbre the Palestinians aren’t particularly popular with other Arabs and there have been some signs that Saudi Arabia would quietly support the Trump plan. I don’t think the Europeans care much one way or another. They’ll disapprove of anything that comes from the Trump Administration or, indeed, most American administrations.
We’ll now see if the Palestinians will live up to Abba Eban’s wisecrack about them: “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
Abbas’ peace plan would be the same non-negotiable one the PLO has pushed since their start: One state, under one leader for life, 100% Palestinian and Muslim. Druze, Christians of any stripe, and especially Jews need not apply. Kinda hard to have a conversation when that’s your beginning and ending bargaining position.
There will be no peace agreement until Allah wills it, that is, never. But there can be relative peace, through force. I wouldn’t give the Palestinians any more venues to spout their rhetoric. Let them stew in their own juices until the century comes where they think like reasonable people.
Dave, the Arabs who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ have NEVER wanted peace. Or at least their leaders and their loyal flowers never have. Remember Oslo? Arafat proposed to give up terrorism, to educate his people for peace, to recognize Israel and to end demonization of Jews in ‘Palestine’s’ mosques, schools and media. He never did any of them. Neither has Abbas.
And why should they? They got billions of dollars, more aid than any developing country in history and needless to say, the Leftist post both here and in Europe cheerfully presented them as ‘occupied.’
They aren’t occupied at all since ‘Palestine’ was never a sovereign country. Occupation refers to a country’s sovereign territory being occupied by a foreign power. The San Remo Accords and Article 80 of the UN Charter both say that everything west of the Jordan River (28% of Palestine Mandate) belonged to the Jewish state, while 72% east of the River was to be the Arab state.
Meanwhile most of that money ended up being stolen and very little was spent on anything useful. It was the Israelis who built whatever infrastructure the ‘Palestinians’ have, roads, the power grid, hospitals, schools, even Bir Zeit University.
Israel’s reward for this largess was lots of permanently maimed and dead Jews, many of them women, children even infants who were deliberately targeted.As I’m sure you know, I can provide numerous examples. And not only are these murderers made into heroes by Abbas and Co., but they receive hefty paychecks from the PLO and are used as examples for the next generation of jihadis.
Yitzhock Rabin and the Labor government made an historic mistake ever going along with Oslo, which neither Arafat or Abbas ever abided by ad never intended to abide by.
President Trump, not being at all stupid knows that neither Hamas or the PLO will ever agree to any piece settlement. Instead, he and Jared have come up with something interesting. It gives the ‘Palestinians’ a possibility of statehood, a capitol in neighborhoods like Abu Dis that are near Jerusalem but are not under Israeli control and a lot of cash if they agree to disarm Hamas, demilitarize, end teaching terrorism in their schools and their payment to terrorists convicted of murder, recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol and create a transparent, democratic government with full civil rights for all citizens, including women.
We all know that Abbas, the PLO, and Hamas will never agree to any of this. Why should they? They are still being funded by the EU, and a few other sources, their leaders and their most loyal followers live well while the money keeps coming in.
The real solution to this problem isn’t more money. Or economic help, since both the PLO and Hamas ruled Gaza will simply steal most of it or use it to buy arms.
At some point, you have to look at facts. These people simply cannot be trusted. The real solution is much more sensible.
A ‘Palestinian state’ would never be anything but a terrorist squat, a kleptocracy and an international welfare dump. All you have to do is look at what they have already become, after billions of dollars have been poured into this sewer.
The PLO will of course reject this. Abbas is already beating the drums in the UN for a resolution condemning the Deal of the Century and he’ll likely be successful, speaking of sewers.
The real answer is quite simple. Most of the ‘Palestinians’ actually have citizenship in a country, including Mahmoud Abbas. They got it by law as of 1954. It’s called Jordan. The Midget King, Abdullah II doesn’t want them there since they would overwhelm the Bedouin power structure and could cost him his throne. But that is the only solution and the Israelis will probably implement it, perhaps with cash settlements for private property. And while they’re at it, they’re going to have to come to terms than allowing Gaza to be given to their enemies was a dumb move and deal with that.
Trump knows full well that many of the Arab countries are fed up with the PLO. Yes, they’ve been using it as propaganda for years, but in reality they’ve kicked out and killed far more ‘Palestinians’ then the Israelis ever have..over 700,000 in Kuwait alone. Trump also knows that these countries are very concerned about Iran, and that without Israel, they’re in big trouble. So good relations with Israel for military and economic reasons mean a lot more to the leaders of these countries right now than the ‘Palestinians.’
The longest con game in history looks like it’s heading for the end.
My apologies for the long comment.
“Israel’s reward for this largess was lots of permanently maimed and dead Jews,”
Any idea what the total body count is of Jews killed by Arabs vs Arabs killed by Jews?
Steve
Arabs who offered themselves up, (willingly or unwillingly) as martyrs you mean. Is is time to end the charade of an occupied “Palestine”.