There was deep disappointment among the Palestinian leaders with the initial response of the Arabs to the Trump peace-and-prosperity plan. Their complaint can be read here.
A senior official in the Palestinian Authority has spoken of Ramallah’s disappointment in Arab nations’ muted and sometimes-supportive response to the contentious US proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying the PA had been hoping “for much better.”
Anyone who has read the 181-page (179 pages of text, two pages of maps) document – the Trump peace initiative — which sets out, in great detail, every possible benefit that is to be lavished on the “Palestinians” if they agree to make an enforceable peace, will find it hard to imagine anything more generous. Fifty billion dollars in aid are to spent on the Palestinians. Billions will go to new infrastructure — roads, bridges, tunnels – to increase the mobility of people and goods. Other billions will be spent on hospitals to provide the Palestinians with health care meeting Western standards. Schools at all levels will be built, with $500 million to be spent on one university alone. The educational system will have a curriculum that emphasizes STEM subjects. New electric plants will be constructed to ensure continual availability of affordable electricity in the West Bank and Gaza. A doubling of the potable water supply per capita will be made available to the Palestinians. More investments will enable all Palestinians access to high-speed data services. Money will be made available for vocational and technical training. Civil service jobs will be filled based on merit rather than political connections, as has happened under the PA and Hamas. A legal regime providing transparency and security for investors, while strictly punishing corruption, will be established, in order to attract foreign investors.
The end result, according to the plan, would be a decrease in the Palestinian unemployment rate from above 30% to below 10%, a halving of the poverty rate for Palestinians, and at least a doubling of the Palestinian GDP. This prosperity for the new State of Palestine would have further benefits, as an engine of economic growth within a regional system that would include Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Mahmoud Abbas claims not to have bothered to read the 181-page plan. How can he be sure he needs to reject it out of hand? Because he knows that Israel will be able to hold onto the Jordan Valley and its West Bank settlements. But he hasn’t been asked to accede to everything laid out in the plan. He’s been asked to study the plan, to take it seriously, and then not to accede to everything it lays out, but to use the plan as the basis for good faith negotiations, which is a different thing. But he won’t do even that. Abbas wants to be assured of the final disposition of the West Bank before entering into negotiations on, among other things, the final disposition of the West Bank.
If the PA had been hoping for “much better,” given all the careful thought that went into this plan whose primary purpose is to bring not just peace, but prosperity to the Palestinians, it must be disabused, by the Trump Administration, of any such hope. Anyone who studies the plan, downloadable at www.whitehouse.gov, will see how it has been so carefully crafted, to lift the Palestinians from their wretched state of relying on incessant handouts from others, to genuine prosperity, generated by their own enterprise and hard work.
Hussein al-Sheikh, PA Civil Affairs Minister, member of the Fatah Central Committee and a close confidant of President Mahmoud Abbas, said there was concern that Arab nations, who the PA had hoped would back their position, may become a “dagger in [the] Palestinian people’s side.”
He needn’t have worried. After initially seeming to give approval to the Trump Plan, the Arab states met in Cairo and, as a body, rejected the Trump Plan. Bahrain, the UAE, and Oman, whose ambassadors had attended the roll-out of the plan at the White House, a way of giving it their approval, changed their minds in Cairo. Those Arab countries that had initially issued statements of mild praise for the plan, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, similarly voted to reject it at the Arab League meeting on February 1. No need for Hussein al-Sheikh to worry about the Arab states becoming “a dagger in [the] Palestinian people.” In Cairo, the Arab foreign ministers collectively allowed themselves to be bullied by the hysterics of Mahmoud Abbas, even though it is he who has to go hat in hand to beg for alms from these very countries. And even though many of these countries are becoming increasingly weary of the Palestinian conflict that once seemed so central but now, in light of the threat from Iran, has been reduced in importance, they still voted to uphold the rejectionist stance of the Palestinians. The Arab states most alarmed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait, have their own reasons for wanting Israel, as Iran’s most potent enemy in the region, to remain strong, and not to be squeezed back within something like the 1967 armistice lines, as the Palestinians demand. They want Israeli deterrence to remain effective against Iran. Yet they too, having previously issued encouraging statements about the Trump Plan, as a valuable basis for negotiations, voted to reject it in Cairo. Were they all so afraid of the Arab Street? Was there a fear of being painted as collaborators of Trump and Netanyahu? Were they afraid of being accused by Iran of being “collaborators” with the Big and Little Satans? Why, within three days, did a half-dozen Arab states completely change their public attitude from Yes to No?
The Palestinians, who even before the release said they would reject the plan, have firmly maintained that position.
If any of those Palestinian rejectionists bothered to read the whole plan, they would see that 80% of it is devoted to ways to improve the lives of Palestinians, from education and health care to provision of electricity and water, to infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels) that would speed up commuter and delivery times, to bringing data services up to Western (i.e., Israeli) standards, to supplying vocational training to Palestinians for jobs in high tech. The aim is to decrease unemployment by at least two-thirds, to cut the numbers of Palestinians living in poverty by half, and to double the Palestinian GDP, all within ten years.
“We were hoping that the Arab position would be much better than that,” Sheikh told Al Jazeera Thursday night. “But the real test is on Saturday at the Arab League meeting.
“In every meeting with our Arab brothers, we did not demand that the Arabs fight America or Israel on our behalf,” Sheikh said. “We asked them for the minimum position…We asked them to tell the Americans: ‘What the Palestinians accept, we accept. And what the Palestinians reject, we reject.’
“We hope that our whole Arab nation will be a supportive force for us and not a dagger in the Palestinian people’s side,” Sheikh said.
The plan grants Israel much of what it has sought in decades of international diplomacy, namely control over Jerusalem as its “undivided” capital, rather than a city to share with the Palestinians, who would have the capital of a potential state in the East Jerusalem area — but without the coveted Old City and surrounding neighborhoods. The plan also lets Israel annex West Bank settlements, and rules out the return of Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory.
Making provision for the Palestinian capital to be just on the outskirts of Jerusalem, most likely in the suburb of Abu Dis, would still allow the Palestinians to describe their capital as being in “Al Quds” (Jerusalem).
As for not permitting the return of refugees, the Palestinian “refugees” are unique in the world, for out of the hundreds of millions of refugees since the beginning of World War II, only the Palestinians have been allowed to describe the children and grandchildren (and so on through the generations) of refugees as “refugees” themselves. If these refugees, as so capaciously defined, were permitted to return to Israel, that would mean more than 5 million Arabs would arrive, thus swamping the Jews of Israel. That would be the end of the Jewish state. And that is something Israel, understandably, cannot accept.
b.a. freeman says
i rather wondered what mr. trump and his crew were doing, but once i thought about it, i realized that there was no way that the ummah is *E*V*E*R* going to honestly deal with jews, whom their scriptures describe as their eternal enemies. mr. trump is not a fool, so i suspect that he offered the palestinians a good deal so that once they rejected it, the rejection could be shown to all as proof that there will never be peace. in a rational world, this would mean that the u.s. government would simply stop dealing with palestinian thugs, treating them like all other thugs, and giving israel all the help she needs to fight off thugs.
at least, that’s what i’m hoping.
mortimer says
Reply to BAF: good point. I think Trump was aware that he put the Pally leaders in a corner. Do they want a deal or not? It appears that any deal with Israel is impossible because they will only be satisfied with the disappearance of Israel.
Pres. Trump has SMOKED THEM OUT of their subterfuge so the world can see these terrorists aren’t interested in any deal with Israel. They are merely terrorists fighting jihad.
Mandatory Palestine was partitioned in 1921 into Arab and Jewish sectors. No further partitioning is necessary. Arabs may either live in Israel under the modern laws of Israel or move to Jordan and live under backward Islamic law.
FYI says
In the above photo mr abbas looks like he is reading that Arab book of fantasy fiction,the koran.
A shame he isn’t reading the works of Mr Robert Spencer instead:at least they are based on fact,reason and let’s face it,are far better written than the “perfect” koran.
James Lincoln says
b.a. freeman says,
“mr. trump is not a fool, so i suspect that he offered the palestinians a good deal so that once they rejected it, the rejection could be shown to all as proof that there will never be peace.”
Exactly!
Peter Dale says
Arab leaders and terrorist groups have always been very clear as to what they want and will accept. They want all the land of Israel and the extinction of the Jews. This ‘Deal of the Century’ was dead on arrival. Einstein is supposed to have said that insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This ‘Deal’ is insane. As for demonstrating to the rest of the world the attitude of the Arabs: who is the result of the world? The anti-semites of the European Union? The Russians? The Chinese? We already know what they think. As for the UN: the secretary-general of that intellectual cesspit has already said that that group supports only ‘two states living in peace and security” based on the pre-1967 borders. In other words, death to Israel on the instalment plan. Nothing to see here, folks; move along.
gravenimage says
Palestinians Are “Disappointed” In Initial Arab Response — Arab League Then Rejects the Trump Plan (Part 1)
……………………
In other words, the “Palestinian” Muslims were disappointed that any Muslims would even give lip service to the idea of peace with the hated Jews.
libertyORdeath says
“… to lift the Palestinians from their wretched state of relying on incessant handouts from others, to genuine prosperity”
Is it really “genuine prosperity” and a stoppage of “incessant handouts” if it begins with the biggest undeserved handout in history? I’m happy they rejected the deal, there is no way they should be so generously rewarded for their hate, terrorism and corruption. There comes a time when you have to kick the baby bird out of the nest and let them fly or fall on their own. In this case it would be recognizing that the “Palestinians” will never accept a peace with Israel and that Israel will never be truly secure. Then it’s time to kick them out to the portion of the mandate given to them, i.e. the Kingdom of Jordan, and finally let the Jewish people live a reasonably normal life.