And I join you in hope!

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.