WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: Trump Amb. To Israel David Friedman came out with a revised Israel-Palestinian Arab peace proposal this week – FULL Israeli sovereignty over Judea-Samaria with massive economic benefits for Judea-Samaria Palestinian Arabs. It’s crucial that we vocally support it in the face of vociferous Jewish homeland delegitimizing claims.
Amb. Friedman Pivots to Jewish Homeland’s FULL Judea-Samaria Sovereignty with Massive Palestinian Arab Aid; Deserves Our Support
I hope like me you’ve had it with international news reports incessantly saying “Israeli-occupied West Bank” instead of Judea-Samaria, international leaders decrying Israel’s “unbearable” (Obama), “suffocating” (Guterres) “occupation of Palestinian territory,” Blinken’s Pompeo-reversing delegitimizing of Judea-Samaria Jewish communities as “settlements” that are “inconsistent with international law,” etc., etc.
Well then, time for us to start refuting this by driving home two clear points:
[1] the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan River, is by historical presence and international treaty OURS, and
[2] Palestinian Arabs ALREADY HAVE in Arab-ruled judenrein Jordan, three-quarters of the Palestine Mandate, where they’re the big majority, a Palestinian Arab Palestine home. And, to boot, they have judenrein Gaza, where they’re not just that part of Palestine’s population majority but its entirety, and also, as proposed this week by Trump-term Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, could have in Judea-Samaria “enclaves with maximum civilian autonomy subject to Israeli overriding security control.”
Americans by and large have a sense of fairness, and if you ignore that much-abused term “context,” then the Biden et al-pushed so-called “two-state solution” that would purportedly share Palestine between Jews and Arabs may strike many as equitable. But it isn’t, because Palestine is already partitioned between Jews and Arabs, heavily favoring Arabs. Jordan sits on three-quarters of the post-Ottoman Empire Palestine Mandate, and has a majority population of Palestinian Arabs. (Israel’s biggest population segment is not “white” but Mizrahi – descendants of the greater number of indigenously Middle-eastern Jews displaced after the 1948 Arab invasion-started war from vast Arab and other Muslim lands than Arabs left tiny Israel in 1948.)
1948 and 1967
While you stand on one leg: the post-WW I League of Nations Palestine Mandate, with its recognition of historic Jewish connection with Palestine and reestablishment there of the Jewish national home with close settlement of Jews on the land, embraced today’s Israel and Jordan, but allowed the trustee, Britain, to excise from it Palestine east of the Jordan River, which Britain with alacrity did, creating Transjordan, today’s Jordan. When Jordan, Egypt and Israel’s other Arab neighbors invaded Israel in 1948 “to push the Jews into the sea,” Israel threw back the invaders, but in the final UN-imposed ceasefire Jordan held Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem. The 1949 Armistice Agreement expressly defined the ceasefire line as military only and not as an international border. Israel evicted Jordan from west of the River in the 1967 war.
“Two-State Solution”
The not-new “two-state solution,” which the Biden administration is presently pushing, is based on the 1949 ceasefire lines, never among the Holy Land’s holy places, and 9-miles-wide for Israel in the lowland middle, and excluding defensible Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem. It would be Jewishly and militarily suicidal for Israel.
Trump Plan and Abraham Accords
During President Trump’s term as President, he, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, advisor Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner and others worked out an Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace plan, “the deal of the century,” described in Friedman’s book “Sledgehammer.” It would have provided Palestinian Arab autonomy (i.e., security-wise “less than a state,” as Rabin had years before put it) in a bigger chunk of Judea-Samaria than Palestinian Arabs occupy now, and Israel would declare sovereignty over the defense-critical Jordan Valley and certain other areas of Judea-Samaria. It was sidelined by the bigger Mideast breakthrough of the Abraham Accords, establishing unprecedented normalized relations between Israel and certain Arab Gulf countries.
“The Future of Judea & Samaria”: David Friedman’s Proposal This Week
Israel International News ran an article Friday this week (3/1/24), headlined
“David Friedman Presents: ‘The Future of Judea & Samaria’ Sovereignty Plan”
Sub-head:
“Former US Ambassador to Israel’s new proposal calls for full Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, alongside Palestinian enclaves with maximum civilian autonomy subject to Israeli overriding security control.”
A Thursday (2/29/24) JNS article, carried in Israpundit as ‘Future of Judea-Samaria’: Former US Envoy Unveils Sovereignty Plan, quotes Amb. Friedman’s reasoning for shifting from partial to complete Israeli sovereignty over Judea-Samaria:
“I pivoted from the Trump administration’s ‘deal of the century’ because the Palestinian response to the Trump plan was so hostile. It seems futile to offer a compromise to those who don’t want to compromise. I’m convinced that after Oct. 7, any discussion of a Palestinian state will incentivize further terror.”
We Grassroots US Jews Must Support Friedman’s Plan
In last week’s #1205 I quoted both former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Amb. Friedman’s responses to current Secretary of State Blinken’s denunciation of Israeli “settlements” in Judea-Samaria and Jerusalem suburbs as “inconsistent with international law.” What pleased me about both these former officials’ statements was their reliance in part on Jews’ historical claims to our people’s homeland’s defensible Judea-Samaria hill country heartland.
Friedman: “There is nothing illegal about Jews living in their biblical homeland” and quoting Undersecretary of State Eugene Rostow: “Israel has the best legal claim to Judea and Samaria.” (Friedman reiterates in this week’s new plan “Israel’s biblical claims to Judea and Samaria.” And I wish you’d all seen his and Pompeo’s Route 60: The Biblical Highway last fall, when it was the biggest hit in American theaters its first two nights.)
Pompeo: “Judea and Samaria are rightful parts of the Jewish homeland and Israelis have a right to live there.”
And I cited the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent’s poll of the week last week: “Do you support a two-state solution?” When I voted ‘No’ the response was only 55% for and substantial 44% against “two-states.” And my guess is that our formerly community-owned Exponent’s readers lean to the liberal side.
Friday’s INN article quotes Friedman’s new plan: “Two-state solution is a dead letter; Israel has no margin of error and the Palestinian leadership has proven unreliable as a peace partner. Nonetheless, even after the October 7 assault, the US Administration is still pushing this outcome,” it states….”
And it further quotes: “’A security threat that cannot be overstated – a Palestinian State is an existential threat to the State of Israel,’ it states ….”
Now in these incessant “From the River to the Sea” howls times is not the time for us to be silent, even to be talking about “but UNSC 242 doesn’t say ‘the’” and that Judea and Samaria are “disputed.” They’re OURS, as is united Jerusalem, and we have to say so aloud.