Trump’s indecision is sinking his own two-state solution

January 17, 2021 by David Singer
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President Trump’s failure to release a detailed plan showing the specific borders of a Palestinian Arab State incorporating Gaza and about 70% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) – before he leaves office at midday on 20 January – will sink the only two-state solution that has any possibility of being implemented in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

President-elect Biden seems set to support the failed two-state solution propagated by the United Nations for the last 25 years – which is unacceptable to Israel.

When releasing his comprehensive plan “Peace to Prosperity – A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People” (“Peace Plan”) on 28 January 2020 – Trump pointed out:

  • “For the first time in this conflict, President Trump has reached an understanding with Israel regarding a map setting forth borders for a two-state solution.
  • This Vision proposes a realistic two-state solution, offering a viable path to Palestinian statehood.
  • Israel has now agreed to terms for a future Palestinian State.”

Trump’s Peace Plan – unlike any other Presidential solution previously offered by his predecessors – was accompanied by the following conceptual plans showing his proposed two-state solution.

The final borders were to be determined in direct negotiations between Israel and the PLO.

At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on 28 January 2020 – Trump announced:

“We will form a joint committee with Israel to convert the conceptual map into a more detailed and calibrated rendering so that [Israeli] recognition can be immediately achieved. 

We will also work to create a contiguous territory within the future Palestinian State for when the conditions for statehood are met, including the firm rejection of terrorism.” 

Trump’s Peace Plan was rejected by PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on 5 February 2020:

“They told me Trump wants to send me the deal of the century to read, I said I would not,” Abbas told the meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. 

“Trump asked that I speak to him over the phone, so I said ‘no’, and that he wants to send me a letter, so I refused to receive it.”

On 9 February 2020 – US Ambassador to Israel – David Friedman – affirmed:

“The process [preparing a detailed map – ed] will not last very long, but we want to go through a process…We’re going to go through a mapping process to convert a map which is drawn of more than a million to one into something which really shows on the ground how the territory will be put together.

 It’s not unduly difficult, but it’s also not simple, because there are a lot of judgment calls. We don’t want to do this piecemeal …

We want to do it once, holistically, in totality, and get it done right. We just want to get it done right. That’s not too much to ask. And that was the president’s message when he spoke about it the first time.”

On 15 February 2020 – the three US members of a joint US-Israel committee to join Israel’s three nominees in translating Trump’s conceptual plans into two defined territorial entities were announced (Mapping Committee).

Eleven months later the Mapping Committee’s map remains under tight wraps. No reasons have been given for the Committee’s failure to publish.

Failing to release the Committee’s detailed map before 20 January will see Trump’s two-state solution sink into political oblivion – leaving no defined borders for future Israel-PLO negotiations – should they ever be resumed.

President Trump’s opportunity to finally end the 100 years-old unresolved Jewish-Arab conflict will then have become just a footnote in history – joining the failed attempts of his Presidential predecessors.

David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network

Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively by the author —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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Comments

4 Responses to “Trump’s indecision is sinking his own two-state solution”
  1. Paul Winter says:

    True, Trump should have drawn up a map of proposed borders. But it was not Trump’s job or, for that matter, of any other body except Israel. The fault lies with Netanyahu, who too clever by half in counting on the local Arabs to agree to not agree to any plan Israel proposes, plus his seemingly brilliant plan to control but not absorb an enemy population by letting them steal land in Area C. That plan appeals to the “settlers” (aka pioneers) determined to develop ancient lands and to the old kibbutzniks who still believe that kindness and a live and let live attitude will win over jihadis.

    • DAVID SINGER says:

      The formation of the joint US-Israel Mapping Committee was an essential part of Trump’s Peace Plan after Abbas signalled he would have nothing to do with the Plan immediately after Trump released it and Abbas’s decision was backed by the Arab League.

      The failure of the Committee to release its map and the departure of Trump from the White House now leaves Israel free to take whatever action it deems best in its national interest in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

      The Trump Plan joins all the other failed plans by Trump’s Presidential predecessors – unless President Biden endorses it – which seems highly unlikely.

  2. Eion Isaac says:

    The Right of Return of the Jewish People to the Empty Areas of the Ancient Holy Land is a International Humanitarian Obligation .
    From 1920 restrictions on Jewish Return we’re illegally enforced and most critically escape from Nazi Europe by millions of Jewish people was callously and criminally blocked by blackmail of the British by the Nazi Palestinian Faction led by Amin Husayni.
    The British and French betrayed Czechoslovakia in Munich September 1938 and Poland September 1939 despite Nazi atrocities and the “ solemn “ promise of help believing the French and British Armed Forces would stop the Nazis in a War of Attrition in 1940 .

    • DAVID SINGER says:

      Eion

      It is also an international legal obligation specifically guaranteed by article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine – which states :
      “The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.”

      The rights contained in article 6 above have been preserved by article 80 of the UN Charter and are as alive in 2021 as they were in 1922 when promulgated.

      That the UN continues to trample on these rights vested in the Jewish People – in flagrant breach of the UN’s own Charter – represents pure and unadulterated Jew-hatred unmatched anywhere else in the world.

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