Americans For A Safe Israel/AFSI welcomes the invitation of the Trump Plan to declare Sovereignty over all existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and has high hopes that this will be done with minimal delay.
The Peace Plan is a Non-Starter
by Helen Freedman
It’s only because President Trump is leading the way in shaping and proposing a peace plan for the Arabs and Israelis that we are giving any credence to this plan. In the past, every plan was turned down by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and so we came to believe they would always inadvertently help us in the end. Slamming doors, walking out on negotiations on the part of the Arabs was guaranteed to help Israel. Even today, President Trump does not have faith in the PA. PA President Mahmoud Abbas would not even talk to President Trump on the telephone, and PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced the plan, saying that it gives Israel sovereignty over land the PA claims as its own. Trump’s reaction to this is “They probably won’t want it initially, but I think in the end they will…It’s very good for them…Without them we won’t do the deal and that’s OK.”
It’s very OK because the biblical promise of a Jewish homeland means that all of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. The hilltops of the Shomron/Samaria, the Judean hills, Gaza, Hebron, the Gallilee, the Negev, the Golan, and the Jordan Valley, were always part of Israel and must remain in Israeli hands. Sovereignty has become a leading movement in Israel, led by two dynamo women, Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover. They have instilled in the people of Israel the facts that ALL of Israel makes up the nation state and NONE of it can be given away. The Six Day War of 1967 brought all of Israel under Israeli control. “Settlers” were encouraged to settle the lands of Judea and Samaria which had been under Jordanian control. Today there are over 350,000 Jews living in flourishing communities like Kedumim, Shilo, Bet-El, Itamar, Efrat, Elon Moreh, and more. Businesses are flourishing. Prize winning wineries, farms, cattle herding and more are part of every day life. What have the Arabs to show for their efforts?
Terrorism and educating the young and old to hate Jews and Israel are the main themes of Arab life. Tragically, the EU and the UN work together with the PA to fund them and to support their claims to Israel’s land. After the signing of the hateful Oslo accords of 1993, with Bill Clinton overseeing the travesty and pushing Arafat, along with Rabin and Peres, to accept the idea of the “two-state solution,” Israel became the oppressor in the “occupied territories” and the “poor Palestinians” were left to their evil devices. Israel was seen as the Goliath, while the PA was the weak David. Truth was turned on its head. The PA leadership was only interested in pocketing the profits that came to them, and promoting the religious battle between the Jews and the Muslims. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, surrogates of Iran, took control in Gaza and in Lebanon, threatening Israel’s northern cities. Illegal takeover of land by Bedouin Arabs, supported by the EU, have taken over areas around Jerusalem in the Adumim region. Illegal Arab building is rampant even in Jerusalem.
The regional threat of a nuclear Iran is a menace to Israel. Khameni, Iran’s Ayatollah Khameni has called Israel a “cancerous tumor that must be destroyed.” Former Iranian president Rafsanjani, boasts that an atomic bomb would destroy Israel, and “just produce minor damages in the Muslim world.” Israel is not alone in its concerns about Iran. America is wrestling with the problem of a nuclear Iran as are the Middle Eastern countries. It would be a dangerous error to strengthen our enemies, offering what President Trump calls the “deal of the century” which will be “overly good to them.”
We know the PA leaders will reject the plan. We’re thrilled with that, because then there will be no threat to Israel’s sovereignty. We are grateful to President Trump for all the positive things he has already done for Israel. Once the PA rejection is official, let’s hope the “deal” will be torn up and that will be the end of the “negotiations.” Israel must be recognized as an intact, sovereign Jewish state, fulfilling its biblical promise.
Trump’s Peace Plan: Key Points
“We are not here to lecture—we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership – based on shared interests and values – to pursue a better future for us all.” ~President Donald J. Trump
Please note that Trump’s long-awaited peace plan calls for a two-state solution – a component of the plan that Americans For A Safe Israel/AFSI does not endorse.
Here are a few key acknowledgements the 181 page plan makes that you should know:
- The territory that Israel is being asked to transfer is “territory to which Israel has asserted valid legal and historical claims, and which are part of the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.”
- Under UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel is not legally bound to provide the Palestinians with 100% of pre-1967 territory. and that Israel has already withdrawn from 88% of the territory Israel captured in 1967.
- Israel will not have to uproot any Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria where 450,000 Jews live.
- Jordan Valley will be under Israeli sovereignty.
- Israel will retain sovereignty over territorial waters.
- Full demilitarization of Gaza, Hamas, PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), and other militias and terror groups; and placing a body acceptable to Israel in control of Gaza. This is required prior to Israeli implementation of peace agreement obligations.
- The Jewish people’s right to pray on the Temple Mount.
- “Jerusalem will remain the sovereign capital of the State of Israel” and should remain an undivided city. It was stated at the press conference the Palestinians will have a capital in the part of eastern Jerusalem that is on the other side of the security fence. We do not endorse this point.
- “The embassy of the United States to the State of Israel will remain in Jerusalem.”
- Full demilitarization of any Palestinian State and Gaza.
- Calls for Palestinians to “demonstrate both a clear intention and a sustained capacity to fight terrorism,” to be determined by Israel.
- The Plan calls for all Israeli captives and remains be returned to Israel.