T. Belman.  Singer wants to extend Jordan’s borders to take in the land set aside for the Palestinians  west of the Jordan R. I disagree vehemently.  I want Israel to have sovereignty over all land west of the Jordan R and to incentivize the Palestinians to emigrate to Jordan or elsewhere.

The “Palestinians” do have a state – now called Jordan – created in 78% of former Palestine in 1946. 

By David Singer, INN

President Trump’s now released deal of the century – calling for the creation of a second Arab state in former Palestine in addition to Jordan (“the two-state solution”) – has predictably already been consigned to the dustbin of history by PLO President Mahmoud Abbas on the day of its publication.

Trump’s solution was a mirage based on the same shaky foundations unsuccessfully pursued by the international community since the 1980 Venice Declaration.

Trump’s failure to address the following issues ensured its collapse from the get go:

• The term “Palestinians” is not defined in the plan’s Glossary.
• Who comprise “the Palestinians” and what constitutes their common identity?

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T. Belman. Either Israel has the right to extend her sovereignty or she doesn’t. Israel should not need US permission to claim what is hers legally and historically. So she should go ahead and do it without consent. Trump/Kushner can disagree for their own reasons.  They can withhold their consent until after the elections if they so choose. In that way everybody exercises their rights.  Nothing hinges on Israel being compliant. But I think that both the US and Israel benefit from Israel showing independance.

It is not in Israel’s interest to encourage Abbas to join the process or to show him flexibility. Trump for his own reasons thinks that it enables him to sell the plan. But does it?  Better that he just plow ahead and do it. Don’t let the tail wag the dog.  The more resolve he shows, the more success he will achieve. The more flexibility he shows, the more he loses the Israeli Right and the more he gets bogged down in the process

If Israel extends their law to all land and people within the municipal envelopes in the first instance, there should be no technical issues to decide. The technical team can always meet thereafter to decide how much more to enlarge the envelope.

Senior official says Palestinian fate won’t change if group of 22 countries doesn’t alter methods; CIA chief said to visit Ramallah, assure PA of opposition to snap annexation

By TOI STAFF

Jared Kushner (R) joins US President Donald Trump as he holds a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on October 1, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via JTA)

A senior US official on Saturday lambasted the Arab League’s rejection of the recently released Trump peace plan, saying in a statement that such dismissals would not benefit the Palestinian people.

“It is only by having a wiliness [sic] to try a new approach that we will make a breakthrough in a conflict that has left the Palestinian people to suffer for decades,” a senior administration official said in a written statement.

“Past Arab League resolutions have placated Palestinian leadership and not led to peace or progress and it is important to try a new approach or the Palestinian people’s fate will not change.” the official added. Read more…

Two decades after it launched, it’s clear the free trip to Israel helped bring about a 25% rise in the US Jewish population

By Leonard Saxe, TOI

Participants in the Birthright Israel trip. (courtesy)<
>
Twenty years ago, in late December 1999, an El Al flight from New York City landed at Ben Gurion Airport. Among the passengers were 40 college students – the inaugural Birthright Israel participants from the United States. Their arrival was the beginning of an experiment in Israel-Diaspora education that has transformed Jewish life in America.

Since its launch, approximately 750,000 Jewish young adults – more than 425,000 from the United States – have participated in Birthright’s ten-day educational programs. Numerous studies have demonstrated Birthright’s impact on the Jewish identity of its participants. Less appreciated is how the program is reshaping American Jewry’s demographic profile.

When Birthright was launched, there were approximately 5.5 million Jews in the United States. Today, the US Jewish population is 7.5 million individuals, a 25% increase. Birthright is not solely responsible for the growth, but the program has become emblematic of efforts to engage future generations with Jewish life.
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Since 1993 the Palestinians could have had their state, though it would have been a modest one. But they fought on, oblivious to the evaporation of their bargaining position

By Conrad Black, NATIONAL POST

The U.S. Middle East peace initiative has been largely lost in the distractions of the doomed and outrageous attempt to impeach the president of the United States and the coronavirus epidemic that has already caused the quarantine of 60 million Chinese (almost the entire population of France). Because it is Donald Trump’s, and importantly contributed to by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the entire traditional approach to peace-making has been jettisoned and replaced, most observers are dubious, beyond what is always somewhat justified in that part of the world. This is not an unreasonable reflex, given that no substantive negotiations have achieved anything useful in the Middle East since the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.

A radical change in approach is justified because of the large shift in the correlation of forces in the region. To the end of the 20th century Israel was facing quite solid Arab opposition, and the United States was importing 15 million barrels of oil per day and had to pay some attention to the desires of the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, a feudal country that was a joint venture between the nomadic House of Saud and the leadership of the radical Wahhabi Muslims. The entire Muslim world, in varying degrees, paid lip-service and gave some tangible assistance to the cause of the Palestinians, whose leadership militantly declined to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

A radical change in approach is justified

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Within two days of historic White House event, PM has had to backtrack from vow to immediately apply Israeli law to settlements. What went wrong, why, and how much does it matter?

By RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI 30 January 2020, 9:58 pm

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, to announce the Trump administration’s much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Many supporters of the settlement movement rushed to cheer Tuesday’s unveiling of US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” as the most pro-Israel peace proposal in history.

There were some misgivings about the plan’s vision for a future Palestinian state, even if it was conditioned on a list of demands many of which the Palestinians will never accept.

But concerns over Trump’s endorsement of a “realistic two-state solution” were drowned out by jubilation over the green light the proposal gave to Israel to immediately annex the Jordan Valley and all settlements in the West Bank.

But merely 24 hours after the plan was unrolled at the White House, celebration turned into frustration.
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UK foreign office expresses concern over possible Israeli application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

By Elad Benari, INN  Canada, 31/01/20 21:49

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab>

Britain on Friday cautioned Israel against applying sovereignty over Judea and Samara in line with a new Middle East initiative outlined by US President Donald Trump.

The UK foreign office said in a statement quoted by AFP that London was “concerned by reports of possible moves toward annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel”.

“Any such unilateral moves would be damaging to renewed efforts to re-start peace negotiations, and contrary to international law,” it added.

“Any changes to the status quo cannot be taken forward without an agreement negotiated by the parties themselves.”
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Pan-Arab bloc says American offer ‘does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people,’ vows not to cooperate with administration on proposal

By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF   Today, 4:58 pm

This picture taken on February 1, 2020 shows a view at an Arab League emergency meeting discussing the US-brokered proposal for a settlement of the Middle East conflict, at the league headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo, as delegates take to their seats (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

The Arab League on Saturday rejected US President Donald Trump’s controversial Middle East plan, calling it “unfair” to Palestinians.

The pan-Arab bloc said in a statement that it “rejects the US-Israeli ‘deal of the century’ considering that it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.”

Arab leaders also vowed “not to… cooperate with the US administration to implement this plan.”

According to Channel 13 news the decision was unanimous.

The US plan would grant the Palestinians a state with restricted sovereignty in Gaza and in parts of the West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements and keep nearly all of East Jerusalem.
Read more…

Andrea Bernstein’s ‘American Oligarchs’ is selling like hotcakes amid Senate impeachment trial, author reveals at Boston book launch

By RICH TENORIO, TOI      Today, 5:00 am

Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Jared Kushner, right, husband of his daughter Ivanka Trump, center, during a campaign stop at Concord High School, January 18, 2016, in Concord, New Hampshire. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

BOSTON — One was a family of Holocaust refugees from Poland, the other a family with roots in 19th-century Germany. Now, following Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism, two American dynasties, the Kushners and the Trumps, are joined by marriage. Collectively, the families are the subject of award-winning journalist Andrea Bernstein’s new book, “American Oligarchs.”

Subtitled “The Kushners, The Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power,” the book was already a New York Times bestseller days after its publication by W.W. Norton & Company. The first stop on Bernstein’s book tour was the WBUR CitySpace in Boston on January 22, in which she gave a talk moderated by “Here & Now” radio host Tonya Mosley.
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T. Belman. I trust Trump’s intentions and am willing to play ball. I do not trust Netanyahu because of his many false promises. This is Trump’s baby and we should let him call the shots.

We cannot be “greedy” and try grabbing everything at once, because this is also the quickest way to lose everything. If Israel opts for an approach that is viewed by Riyadh and Cairo as too aggressive, the Trump administration’s strategic victory of rallying the Arab world against the Palestinians could dissipate.

by  Boaz Bismuth, ISRAEL HAYOM

US President Donald Trump and PM Netanyahu arrive at a joint news conference to discuss a new Middle East peace plan proposal, in Washington on Tuesday | Photo: Reuters/Joshua Roberts

The prime minister has attained historic support for the policies he has championed for decades on behalf of the nationalist camp, but to implement them he must be cautious and patient. Otherwise, this history-in-the-making will remain on paper, or worse will boomerang against us.

Like many in Israel in general and the nationalist camp in particular, I too share the sense of satisfaction and joy that the concept of “peace now” has finally been replaced with “sovereignty now.” In contrast to the Left, however, whose irresponsible hastiness and inability to delay gratification created diplomatic and security crises for Israel, some of which remain unresolved to this day – the Right needs to demonstrate, at this juncture incidentally, diplomatic restraint. This was always the difference between the pragmatic Right and the impulsive Left, and it should remain this way.
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T. Belman.  No one believes that this deal will end with a two states solution west of the Jordan R. So what then is its purpose or goal?  It imposes on the Palestinians certain obligations which they will never accept.  As a result the pressure will build for the end of UNRWA and the end of the PA and Oslo during the next four years and this is so whether Israel formally accepts the plan or not.  Even if Israel rejects the plan because it forbades immediate annexation she will not refrain from talking about it.  The plan will exist and entail efforts to implement it even if both sides reject all of it or some of it.

You might be right to think that the purpose or goal is to usher in the end of UNRWA and the end of Oslo thereby liberating Israel to craft another solution.   In the meantime the Gulf States and Egypt have the fig leaf they need to draw closer to Israel.

It may even open the door to the regime change in Jordan.

By Robert J. Zafft, AMERICAN THINKER

The leadership of the Palestinian Authority doesn’t want the deal. These leaders retain their relevance from conflict and make their money by stealing aid. They also have no clue how to run a successful, modern state. Hamas doesn’t want it. It, too, wants to maintain relevance and to steal. Hamas has also formally pledged not only to destroy Israel but to kill every Jew on earth. (Call it a cheap way to curry favor on Western university campuses.)  Iran and Erdogan’s Turkey don’t want it because their regional ambitions require division and discord among smaller states, as well as a path to Muslim-world leadership by taking on the “Zionist entity.” Read more…

T. Belman. Israel must insist on “annexation” now as a pre-condition to accepting the Deal of the Century.

U.S. Ambassador also briefed Israeli journalists about the plan in a way that emphasized annexation while downplaying elements less satisfactory to Israel’s right, American and Israeli sources say

A demonstrative shrug by a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s entourage on the plane home from his visits to Washington and Moscow pretty much said it all on Thursday.

Reporters aboard the plane asked what had changed between the bombastic statements about annexing all the settlements as early as next week’s cabinet meeting, and the ice-cold water poured on it by the White House on Wednesday. “I hope nothing has changed,” he replied.

Later, a tortuous explanation was offered. It was all just a “technical problem.” According to another senior official aboard the plane, who was asked to explain the confusion, Israel wanted to annex the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea and the West Bank settlements as a kind of first instalment, and then, in a second wave, the areas around those settlements, for a total area of 30 percent of the West Bank. “But the Americans only want it all in one go, and this will take time.”
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T. Belman. I don’t believe this explanation. After three years, what is left to define.  The key here is that Israel law apply to all Israelis living on this land.  There is no dispute as to who they are, requiring consultations. The official went on to say that the only disagreement which remains between Israel and the Trump administration is whether to carry out the application of sovereignty in one step, or whether Israel should apply sovereignty in stages. All their other explanations contradict this.

Trump administration wants Israel to apply sovereignty in single, comprehensive move, while Israel wants several phases, says official.

By Yoni Kempinski, INN 30/01/20 18:35


Trump and Netanyahu, Kobi Gideon/GPO

A senior Israeli official and confidant of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu played down the apparent split between the US and Israel regarding the timetable for the application of Israeli sovereignty over large swaths of Judea and Samaria.

On Thursday, the senior official said that the disagreement centered around technical issues only, while both sides had fundamentally agreed that Israel will extend its sovereignty over about 30% of Judea and Samaria, including all Israeli towns in the area.

“We’ve been working on this for three years,” the official said. “That’s not three meetings – but hundreds of hours to try to advance this – a deal which is good for the State of Israel.”
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