Trump should dump PLO and jump-start Israel-Jordan negotiations

July 21, 2017 by David Singer
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President Trump has completed six months in office without managing to get Israel and the PLO to resume their negotiations – stalled since April 2014…writes David Singer.

Trump’s failure has not been for lack of trying.

The President has turned on his political charm offensive – inviting both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the White House – whilst making personal visits to Jerusalem and Bethlehem – all apparently to no avail.

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman have been actively engaged on the ground in both Jerusalem and Ramallah in talks with Israel and the PLO – yet nothing of significance has emerged to indicate the PLO is ready to meet Israel without preconditions face to face across the negotiating table.

Even if these two adversaries resumed negotiations – there appears little chance of the PLO modifying demands that:

  1. it be granted sovereignty over every square metre of Judea and Samaria (“the disputed territories”) and
  2. Jerusalem be divided.

Offers by Israel in 2000/2001 and 2008 to cede its claims in more than 90% of the disputed territories have already been rejected by the PLO.

Trump needs to identify a new Arab partner to replace the PLO and join Israel in allocating sovereignty of the disputed territories between Jews and Arabs.

That partner should be Jordan – for four compelling reasons:

  1. Jordan and Israel have enjoyed a signed peace treaty since 1994 which already contains provisions for resolving contentious issues in the disputed territories such as water, and refugees – and Jerusalem.

 

  1. The PLO Charter does not recognise Jordan or Israel’s right to exist as separate territorial units:

“Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit.

Palestine during the British Mandate (1922-1948) encompassed Israel, the disputed territories and Jordan.

  1. Jordan’s
  • invasion and annexation of the disputed territories contrary to international law between 1948 and 1967
  • continuing role in the disputed territories by extending Jordanian citizenship to the Arabs resident there until 1988 stamp it as eminently suited to resolve a problem it helped to create.
  1. History, geography and demography qualify Jordan and Israel – the two successor States to 95% of the territory of the British Mandate – to resolve sovereignty over the disputed territories – just 4% of the Mandate.

 

Netanyahu eloquently articulated this position at the United Nations on 11 December 1984:

“Clearly, in Eastern and Western Palestine, there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews. Just as clearly, there are only two states in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan, containing some three million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew to live there. It also contains 4/5 of the territory originally allocated by this body’s predecessor, the League of Nations, for the Jewish National Home. The other State, Israel, has a population of over four million, of which one sixth is Arab. It contains less than 1/5 of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate…. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a state of their own. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in Western Palestine, and a 22nd Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949.”

This fetid swamp urgently needs draining – Israel and Jordan are the parties that can make it happen.

President Trump – over to you to weave your proven negotiating skills.

David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network

 

Comments

13 Responses to “Trump should dump PLO and jump-start Israel-Jordan negotiations”
  1. Maurice May says:

    Dear Mr Koncepolski,

    You must be living in a parallel universe. To take one example, Trump goes to Saudi Arabia, recognised as a funder of terrorism throughout the world, and expects them to join in a fight against terrorism.

    Sure he stays up all night and twitches not very presidential.

    He has the lowest approval rating of any US president ever.

    Yet you want us to applaud him. I will not join you.

    He has been assisted and promoted by the most vicious anti-Semitic and racist elements in US.

  2. Maurice May says:

    Mr Singer,
    Unlike you, I have no pearls of wisdom to offer. But I am in constant contact with my extensive family in Israel, all of whom, except one, were born there. They do not have any pearls of wisdom to offer either , but they do not believe that Trump or his tribe have the answers.

    The Jabotinski line (both sides of the Jordan) now being advanced by some of the crypto fascists in Israel ,is not I believe the answer.

    Any solution must of necessity be acceptable to Palestinians and of course Israelis. In view of the past events involving Jordan and the Palestinians, I cannot see Jordan being part of the solution.

    • David Singer says:

      Maurice

      Can you give me any further information on who these crypto fascists are?

      • Maurice May says:

        David
        I f you don’t know who the crypto fascists are then
        open your mind

        • David singer says:

          Maurice

          What a pathetic response.

          Sloganeering will get you nowhere .

          Names of these ” crypto-fascists” please.

          Put up or shut up.

  3. Paul Winter says:

    Well documented article David. Pity that your obsession blinds you to reality: Jordan is NOT the solution to any problem

    Had you been following the news from the Muddled East, David, you would have come across articles questioning the value of the peace treaty with the Hashemites. Understandings and cooperations with Israel were dumped every time that imposed monarchy had the opportunity to flash its Arab/mohammedan credentials. When two Israeli cops are murdered on the Mount, the Jordanian speaker praises the shahids and the WAQF is given free rein to praise the terror. Jordan is resisting pressure to give up the Sbarro accomplice to the USA and the soldier who murdered seven Israeli school girls is hailed as a hero in Jordan. Abdullah is barking like a rabid dog and biting the hand – Israel – that keeps him on his throne.

    It is not Trump that should dump. Israel should dump the PA and make arrangements that suit its interests. The “Palestinians” are a people concocted (with KGB support) to contest Jewish rights; they can go to Jordan, Lebanon or Syria if they won’t live in peace.

    There are NO DISPUTED TERRITORIES! Judea and Samaria are Jewish lands by right, by might, by history, as Caroline Glick asserted. Jews are willing to share their land, but their enemies want to use those territories as launching pads for their ongoing jihad. Israel must control the heights over Tel Aviv and the five passes to the heights from the Jordan River.

    No finessing, no negotiations, no appeasement, no twisted legalities and no imposed solutions by peace processor. Israel must state its demands and impose them on a repeat aggressor which has been saved from its folly by geniuses who do not understand the Arab/mohammedan mind, cynics who want a bigger market to expand into and good old ever hating anti-Semites.

    • david singer says:

      Paul

      Talk and bluster is cheap.

      Negotiations between Israel and Jordan represent the last option to peacefully resolve a conflict that has raged for 100 years. All other solutions have disappeared into the garbage bin of history.

      Israel-Jordan direct negotiations need to be given a try to avoid the possibility of all hell breaking loose with everyone coming out a loser.

  4. Ron Jontof-Hutter says:

    To get to that stage, payments to the PA must be diminished each year and UNRWA has to be disbanded. Apart from Jordan, Chile has a Palestinian community of 500 000, which is very prosperous and which has an opulent sports club and first division soccer team. Could be very attractive to emigrate there.

    • david singer says:

      Ron

      If President Trump is the power broker he claims to be – he can get Jordan and Israel sitting at a negotiating table in Jerusalem or Amman as quickly as you can say – “Jordan is 78% of Palestine”

  5. Maurice May says:

    I am surprised that Mr Singer expects the most incompetent and lazy American president to achieve anything. Furthermore to expect his son-in-law who knows nothing to have a meaningful contribution is somewhat naive.

    Perhaps the lavish praise that Mr Singer bestows on the president is somewhat misplaced.

    A touch of reality would not go amiss in the analysis that Mr Singer produces from time to time.

    • david singer says:

      Maurice

      So what is the “touch of reality” you have in mind?

      Please let us in on your pearls of wisdom for resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

    • Yankel Koncepolski says:

      Maurice May’s statement that Donald Trump is the “laziest President” should not be allowed to go without a response.

      My understanding is that Trumps working day as President commences at 5am, if not earlier.

      In the short 6 months Pres Trump has passed more legislative bills ( 40 ), more than any US President , during the first 6 months of office.

      Trump has achieved the following during this very short period :

      1. On day one instructed Nikki Haley the US ambassador to the United Nations, to make clear that from now on, Israel will no longer be a scapegoat for the United Nations.
      2. Trump organised to meet all the leaders of Arab nations in Riyadh, where he publicly advised them that they must drive out terrorism.
      3. Was first US president to visit the Kotel.
      4. Put Assad in his place
      5. Quickly installed the Thaad anti missile System in South Korea and established good working relations with the Chinese premier who banned the import of NK coking coal ( its largest export )
      6. Cleaned up US Vet Affairs Dept to ensure Vets can obtain local healthcare. Passed several bills to help Vets obtain jobs in large corporations.
      7. Passed bills to get rid of business strangling regulations. Has passed more bills (40 ) than any other President during the same 6 months.
      8. His policies have led to the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years
      9. The highest business confidence rate in 17 years
      10. Implemented an Energy policy that will make the US an unhamstrung gas exporter to Eastern Europe countries and reduce Russia’s influence.
      11. Reduced illegal Mexican
      immigration by 70%.
      Rounded up hundreds of El
      Salvadoran gang members
      and deported them
      12. Obtained $1.6b to start building the Mexican border Wall.

      I could go on and on

      Laziest President ?

      Washington Democrats and Left wing newspapers call getting things to work
      properly as “Trump CHAOS “.

      • david singer says:

        Yankel

        Great comment. Hope you get a response from Maurice May.He seems to have run for cover in not reponding to my response to him.

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