T. Belman. I agree with everything he said. Sovereignty now, a Palestinian State never. Normally one year would be enough for the Arabs to demilitarize and meet all conditions. So why a 4 year period to do this. I believe that the long period is to enable Israel to consolidate her hold on the land granted to her including the Jordan Valley.
Also, holding out the prospect of the creation of a Palestinian state will stifle the voices against the plan. The EU will have to decide if they will work to achieve such a state or work to destroy Trump’s plan. They probably will do both.
The prospect of a Palestinian state also gives the Gulf states a fig leaf for their reconciliation with Israel.
During that 4 year period, probably within 4 months. Abdullah will abdicate and Mudar Zahran will take control of Jordan. Abbas and the PA won’t last much longer. When this happens, Israel will look to Zahran to replace the PA as administrator.
Meanwhile, Israel will strengthen its hold on what has been given to her.
By Min Smoltrich, JEWISH PRESS
[…] The plan, as it was presented today by President Trump, also has bad and dangerous parts that, even if no one believes – including the Americans themselves – that it will be implemented, it should not even have even been declared.
The good news is that the Israeli government is not required to accept the plan.
The Americans are content with Netanyahu’s general and personal “yes” in his speech to negotiate in the future if and when the Arabs fulfill their conditions, and in fact become Scandinavians – which of course will never happen.
The government’s decision will only include the good part of the plan – applying immediate sovereignty to the entire settlement. For everything else, only President Trump spoke and that doesn’t bind us. For us, it is sovereignty now, and an Arab state never.
We continue to oppose any kind of Arab sovereignty in the Land of Israel and the transfer of even one inch of it. Neither today nor the future, neither explicitly nor implicitly. In this sense, we do not accept the American plan but take the good parts of it. Complex, but possible.
Let me allow myself to appreciate that the Americans also know that there is no chance in the world that the Arabs will implement the program under these conditions, and they’re counting on it. In fact, they [the Americans] stand by Israel and pay “lip service” to the Arabs.
In this sense, the picture is reversed – instead of a commitment to the Arabs and the payment of a “lip service” to Israel’s security, a real commitment to Israel and a “lip service” to the Arabs.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
The part I posted covered the argument. What I deleted was superfluous. I don’t know why you found it necessary to overrule my rjudgement. When I can, I cut down on superfuous reading to save the reader time.
This is the Smotrich article in full. I ask all of Israpundit’s readers to read it, because it addresses many of objections that other writers have expressed about the Trump plan in articles and comments published in Israpundit. Smotrich makes the important point that Israel only has to implement those aspects of the plan that are in Israel’s interest, and that the plan says Israel can implement unilaterally. The Israeli government doesn’t have to endorse every element in the plan, such as the proposed Palestinian state. But it doesn’t have to officially raise these objections until and unless the Palestinians accept it as a starting point for negotiations. Until and unless that happens, which it won’t, , it is intelligent diplomacy to withhold criticism of the plan’s questionable elements out of respect for Trump, who clearly has Israel’s interests at heart.
First of all I always make it a practice to include the link. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t done it here.
This article was originally written in Hebrew according to JP and they translated it. Go there to read the rest.
@ Ted Belman:The article as published here used a different title for the article and mispelled the author’s name. There was no link the first time I tried to access the article, although after I brought this to your attention you provided the link. Please in the future take care to provide links to the original sources for all Israpundit articles, and spell the names of the authors correctly, so that we can read the whole article in its original context.
I think that Smotrich’s article in the Jewish Press deserves to be read in full. Ted, could you please publish the whole article with its original title?
Bibi only agreed to Trumps plan because he believes that the Pals would never accept it. Which I agree otherwise the plan has significant problems for Israel such as the tunnel from Gaza would be a serious danger to Israel. Israel just spent big money and time developing and implementing an anti tunnel/terror system from Gaza.
Also giving up land in the Negev to Pal-Arabs is ridiculous.
15 Settlements in Judea/Samaria would be totally isolated and surrounded by Palestinians (simply a really bad idea).
Giving up most of the open spaces in Judea/Samaria.
We are now being told by Kushner that a joint committee must be set up to agree to what land Israel may apply sovereignty to.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I linked his name and Jewish Press in the post.
I have been unable to find any trace of this article in the Jewish Press. Also, no-one named “Min Smoltrich [sic] anywhere. Please provide sourcing, Ted, so we can locate this article.
Sovereignty now, a Palestinian State never.
Pal-Arabs are now thinking of 1000 ways to say no to the Plan which would give them a state, 50 billion dollars to start it with. Their refusal is about having to agree to co-exist with the Jewish State of Israel in peace permanently.
That is why they did not need to see the plan to say NO or LO 1000 times. They refuse to share the land with Israel no matter its borders. Israel should just take the good from the plan up front and apply sovereignty to all Jewish Towns in Judea/Samaria plus the Jordan Valley. Then use the Palestinian NO and refusal to disarm to explain why their can NEVER be a Pal State West of the Jordan River, the next time someone after Trump comes up with a new plan for a Pal-State.
Last chance for a Pal-State and if they were normal they would negotiate from this plan but they will not as it is not in their collective DNA.
Why would smoltrich be pictured in front of an illegal building on the temple mount?