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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
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1 posted on 02/03/2020 3:08:54 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Decades of corruption and mismanagement have left the Palestinian territories desperately impoverished


This is incomplete unless it also includes -

Furthermore, decades of outside influence by those using Palestine as a proxy to attack Israel and further their own strategic goals, to include the UN, must cease.

You cannot and will not solve the problem of Palestine until they are forced to sink or swim on their own as a “nation” and people. Any resolution or plan that does not remove the corrupt influence of the UN, Iran, and others from the equation is doomed to fail.

Anything less and it will continue to be a terroristic welfare state that continually poses a real threat to Israeli citizens.


2 posted on 02/03/2020 3:14:37 PM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
“If 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.
Glad he called him "Abbas".

3 posted on 02/03/2020 3:20:05 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: volunbeer

Abbas won’t live a week, if he concedes to the plan, and then there is Hamas firmly in the Iranian camp. Abbas my have no other choice but to turn to his buddies in Europe and Iran for funding.


4 posted on 02/03/2020 3:20:45 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: volunbeer

It’s all tied up in Islam. When we solve the Islam problem problem. We solve Hamas hezbollah et al and taliban Isis etc

Islam cannot be reformed. It must simply end as a “religion” become a study is history like the nazis and marxists

Mohammed was a terrible tormented soul

You worship the devil. You become him

Www.prophetofdoom.net


5 posted on 02/03/2020 3:20:56 PM PST by Truthoverpower (The guv mint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: Kaslin

I think it would be better if Trump did not try and solve this problem. It’s a stone no man can lift and only get injured trying. If he’s going to do anything, declare all of Israel Israel’s, and all of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, the Arab’s, and leave it at that. Jarrod Kushner came up with a strange plan that divides the land. You really don’t want to do that. Could be why WE are divided today.


6 posted on 02/03/2020 3:26:01 PM PST by Dogbert41 (Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!)
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To: Kaslin
If the Palestinians are willing to abandon their terrorist tactics and accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state

This is just the same old, same old.

As it happens, the Arabs are not so willing, they are patient, and they believe, probably correctly, that they can exhaust the Israelis adn that they can get the US out of the picture even before the Israelis are exhausted - and those are both good bets.

No nation, Israel included, has any right to anything it cannot take and hold.

7 posted on 02/03/2020 3:26:41 PM PST by Jim Noble (There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know)
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To: Kaslin

So, the “hick” Trump manages to come up with a plan that might not work, but appears to be a great deal more sophisticated and clever than our east-coast collection of marshmallow major State Department clowns?

Go figure. They had Hillary as their lead. Think about that. A solid indication that they actually had intellect and class would have been for the Department masses to demand that Hillary be placed in a position matched to her ability.....janitor. But, they probably actually thought that the ignorant **** was smart. And we all know the results - failure - as usual.


8 posted on 02/03/2020 3:28:42 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Kaslin

Don’t think for a minute the Palestinians are smart enough to take this deal.


9 posted on 02/03/2020 3:32:09 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Da Coyote

Perpetual conflict is a jobs program for both sides. Does anyone think that Hamas is going to lay down their arms to run a melon stand? Or an Israeli general to open a Jewish deli?


10 posted on 02/03/2020 3:41:32 PM PST by huckfillary
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To: Kaslin

What Trump has achieved is to prove to the world that what the Palestinians want is not Peacr, or their own State, unless tehat means the total eradication of Israel.

Not that most of us didn’t already know that, but Trump’s genius is his ability to win even when the other side doesn’t want to play.


11 posted on 02/03/2020 3:49:17 PM PST by moonhawk (Excuse me...Did you just presume the gender of the Earth Deity?)
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To: moonhawk

I hope that was the plan, to just put a light on the fact that the Arabs just want the Israelis dead and gone and nothing short of that.


12 posted on 02/03/2020 3:55:51 PM PST by Dogbert41 (Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!)
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To: Truthoverpower

IMO < Islam is the pseudo-religion of the Great Deceiver.

It will last until Christ comes and takes care of it.

You probably lean in that the direction of that belief yourself.


13 posted on 02/03/2020 4:22:09 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Time to up our FR Monthlies by 5-10%. You'll < hardly miss it and it will help.)
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To: Kaslin

Walk softly and carry a big level, builder...er Chief.


14 posted on 02/03/2020 4:24:35 PM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Dogbert41

Too late, Trump already laid out the plan.


15 posted on 02/03/2020 4:46:03 PM PST by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Kaslin

I think perhaps the most important strategic change is that Trump is holding the negotiations/plans in public, rather than private diplomacy such as with Oslo and before. He is appealing directly to the people over the heads of their leaders and militias.


16 posted on 02/03/2020 10:17:01 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: Kaslin

I think it was Henry Kissinger who said that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.


17 posted on 02/04/2020 6:20:17 AM PST by ops33 (SMSgt, USAF, Retired)
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To: ops33

Not Kissinger, Abba Eban. And not Palestinians, Arabs never miss.... Today, Palestinians fits, Arabs aren’t as solidly in the Palestinian corner. Thanks to Jimmy Carter’s wisdom supporting a mullah takeover of Iran.


18 posted on 02/04/2020 4:24:18 PM PST by SJackson (blow in a dogÂ’s face, he gets mad at you, car ride; he sticks his head out the window)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Perhaps, I view it more as a realistic solution, which the parties can take or leave. I doubt President Trump expected anything other than the Palestinian refusal to negotiate.

19 posted on 02/04/2020 4:26:07 PM PST by SJackson (blow in a dogÂ’s face, he gets mad at you, car ride; he sticks his head out the window)
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To: SunkenCiv

Should have called him Abu Mazen, his terror name.


20 posted on 02/04/2020 4:27:24 PM PST by SJackson (blow in a dogÂ’s face, he gets mad at you, car ride; he sticks his head out the window)
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