This week saw the United States finally making public all the details of The Trump Plan for solving the Problem of Peace between Israel and the Palestinians. I’ll be writing about this some more in later pots, but this one is going to discuss just one part of that plan. It was a glaring omission not to have any Palestinian representation when the plan was made public. Even id a Palestinian representative had been invited, he would not have come. The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, had already denounced the plan. He did so well before the details were ever announced. By doing so he seems to hope to repeat the actions of the Arab World following the Six Day War. Then, their response was No Recognition, No Peace, and No Negotiations. That’s the same bill of goods Abbas will try to sell to the Arab League Foreign Ministers next week.
So Far, following the PR show made in Washington over the plan, no Arab country has made any commitment, neither for nor against the plan. I would like to hope that when they do face the histrionics that the Palestinian President is sure to display they will quietly, but firmly, remind him that his game is not the only one in town and that he cannot dictate the behavior of the rest of the Arab World. If that is actually what happens, there is a chance for the plan to actually go forward. If not, the way would still be clear for Israel to adopt some measures that would materially undermine the positions of the Palestinians.
Before continuing, I must remind everyone reading this that the Palestinians have always maintained that the ONLY peace they can accept must include The acceptance of the 1967 cease-fire lines as the basis for borders, That all “Palestinian” refugees and all their descendants, must be allowed, no, forced, to return to the homes where they lived before 1949, and that Jerusalem must be united as the capital of Palestine. None of those requirements have any real foundation either legally or practically. I will deal with all of them in my blogs. The only one I am going to discuss today is the case of the 1967 lines.
I lived through the Six-Day War in Jerusalem. But my memories are not the issue. The 1967 lines were creates by the cease-fire agreements between Israel and her Arab neighbors. All those agreements called for future negotiations to establish a final border. Israel now has signed treaties with both Jordan and Egypt that specify borders. Those treaties leave the question of possible Palestinian state open. No borders are specified for Palestine. Egypt rejected sovereignty over the Gaza strip, and Jordan abandoned all claims to the West Bank territories with the exception of having a Jordanian religious body responsible for the Muslim sites on the Temple Mount, specifically, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Individuals of other faiths are allowed to visit, but not to pray. So there is no legal basis for claiming those lines as borders, neither de facto nor de jure.
Practically, the 1967 lines have been erased or eroded by many construction projects that have been completed in the past half century. Roads and highways cross the old lines and they benefit both the Jewish and Arab residents. Entire neighborhoods have been built that are positioned where parts of the 1967 lines once existed. Those structures, whether Israeli or Palestinian, are not going to be removed. Time does not stand still just because one party to the disagreement wants it to do so. The Trump Plan calls on the Palestinians (and the Israelis) to recognize that a border does need to be created, and that it should be the result of real negotiations between the two sides. The Israeli government has declared it is prepared to do so. The Palestinians have not.
I’ll write more about this in future posts.
Wetherhorn 