Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan Is a Master Class in Negotiating Strategy
Townhall.com ^ | February 2, 2020 | Yechezkel Moskowitz

Posted on 02/03/2020 3:08:54 PM PST by Kaslin

President Trump has just laid out a visionary plan for achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Rather than trying to reconcile the fundamentally conflicting priorities of the two sides, he came up with a practical solution that reflects realities on the ground in the fairest way possible.

Every American president since Lyndon Johnson has tried — and failed — to resolve the conflict, usually by sitting down with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to negotiate toothless agreements that have done nothing to ease tensions or prevent bloodshed. These well-intentioned efforts all made the same fatal mistake: they treated the Israeli and Palestinian people as equals.

President Trump took a very different approach, crafting an independent proposal informed by, but not determined by, consultation with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He recognizes that Israel is one of America’s most steadfast allies, with a historical claim to the land, whereas the leaders of Palestine have promoted terrorism and stoked anti-American sentiment for decades with no historical standing of their own.

If the Palestinians are willing to abandon their terrorist tactics and accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, they have much to gain from the Trump peace plan — including an official Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

“Peace requires compromise, but we will never ask Israel to compromise its security,” the president asserted while unveiling the plan, noting that “terrorism and Islamic extremism are everyone’s common enemy.” For the first time, he’s making the Palestinian people take responsibility for their own future.

That sentiment is a crucial element of the proposal. President Trump has made his support for Israel abundantly clear over the past three years, moving the U.S. Embassy to Israel’s capital of Jerusalem, affirming the legality of Israeli settlements, and recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. These actions have inspired confidence among Israel’s leaders that they can count on the United States to protect their core interests, allowing them to accept, or perhaps even endorse — for the first time — specific boundaries for a Palestinian state.

The plan offers Palestine more than just territorial autonomy, though. Decades of corruption and mismanagement have left the Palestinian territories desperately impoverished, and this proposal offers them a genuine path to prosperity — if they so choose.

“If [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas chooses the path to peace, America and other countries will be there to help every step of the way,” the president vowed, predicting that Palestine’s poverty rate would be cut in half and that its GDP would quickly double or triple. “Our vision will end the cycle of Palestinian dependency on charity and foreign aid,” he added.

Previous presidents demanded that Israel sacrifice its security and made excuses for Palestinian aggression, essentially laying blame for the conflict at Israel’s feet. President Trump, on the other hand, saw that a durable peace can only be achieved with a settlement that ensures Israel can defend itself and asserts its bond to its historical homeland while giving Palestinians a real incentive to change their behavior.

Palestine’s leaders don’t really have any good alternatives to accepting the plan. They can’t maintain the status quo forever, given the destitution of their people and their isolation from the world community. The president’s plan doesn’t offer them everything they’ve sought, but it’s probably the best deal Palestine will ever get.

Donald Trump has given Israel and the Palestinian people a realistic path to peaceful coexistence. The question remains whether the Palestinians will seize the opportunity or fall to the wayside of the annals of history.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Egypt; Israel; Russia; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: djibouti; egypt; eritrea; gaza; hamas; hassannasrallah; hezbollah; iran; isis; israel; jerusalem; jordan; lebanon; letshavejerusalem; nevertrump; nevertrumper; nevertrumpers; palestine; peace; presidenttrump; russia; security; sinai; sudan; syria; trumpmiddleeast; voluntroll; waronterror; yechezkelmoskowitz; yemen
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last
To: monkeyshine
He is appealing directly to the people over the heads of their leaders and militias

Like using Twitter rather than the media. Though in this case the peoples ability to replace their leadership, which any peace plan would require, may not be great. Still, a start. It does hold out a carrot, to the future of the populace rather than leadership.

21 posted on 02/04/2020 4:32:26 PM PST by SJackson (blow in a dogÂ’s face, he gets mad at you, car ride; he sticks his head out the window)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I wonder what the next act will be, now that the Palis have decided to go whole hog bad.


22 posted on 02/04/2020 5:02:28 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Yes, a lot like that indeed.

But more than that. It’s an invitation for the world to step up and even step in. They will negotiate. I am sure they hate that map Trump unveiled, and in some ways I empathize. But contrast it to how Oslo was handled. They negotiated for years in private only for Arafat to scuttle it at the last minute - though “officially” we don’t know the terms of that last and final offer plenty of details have been leaked. But it allowed Arafat to say whatever he wanted. Doing it more openly influences not just Palestinian & Israeli but all opinions all over the world - and ultimately I think that will result in more countries chipping in on the negotiation and the financial cost.


23 posted on 02/04/2020 7:12:33 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Jewish law enforcement is the end game. The Palestinians are going to be be shocked to see that they will have been effectively under the rule of Israel. The Oslo has also been rejected going forward by Abbas.


24 posted on 02/04/2020 8:12:20 PM PST by Jumper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Jewish law enforcement is the end game. The Palestinians are going to be be shocked to see that they will have been effectively under the rule of Israel. The Oslo has also been rejected going forward by Abbas.


25 posted on 02/04/2020 8:12:20 PM PST by Jumper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Jewish law enforcement is the end game. The Palestinians are going to be be shocked to see that they will have been effectively under the rule of Israel. The Oslo has also been rejected going forward by Abbas.


26 posted on 02/04/2020 8:12:24 PM PST by Jumper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Jumper

Four years from now the laws of Israel will Trump Gaza/W Bank and Islamic.


27 posted on 02/04/2020 8:16:40 PM PST by Jumper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I was talking to the Lord about this peace treaty this morning. I was wondering what Trump’s attempt had to do with the timeline of Messiah Yeshua’s return/the rapture. I found this article:
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/editorial/trumps-peace-treaty/2020/01/30/
...and the following quote:

The Yerushalmi (Brachot 1:1 and Yoma 3:2) relates a story about Rabbi Hiyya the Elder and Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta who were walking through the Arbel Valley at daybreak. Upon witnessing dawn, the former said to the latter: “Beribbi (Great one)! Such is Israel’s redemption. It starts slowly, slowly, but as time goes by, the illumination grows greater and greater.”

The Talmud proceeds to ask why this must be so. Why must it be slow and gradual? Couldn’t the sun just come up at once? The Talmud responds with a verse from Michah (7:8), “Ki eshev ba’choshech Hashem ohr Li – If one is in the dark, it is painful if it becomes light suddenly.”


28 posted on 04/20/2020 4:02:11 AM PDT by .30Carbine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson