From a Jew’s perspective, we have come to the point of not certainty, rather probability.
My commentary on the ‘Abraham Accord’ on August 13, 2020, at 8:00AM PST, Los Angeles, California:
Just remember, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was never at conventional war with Israel.
Today, August 13, 2020, the UAE and Israel agree to normalize diplomatic relations. The quid-pro-quo, Israel will halt its intention to apply sovereignty to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, where some 500,000 Jews live and will remain lacking of sovereignty and in political limbo.
The Trump ‘deal of the century’ peace plan for Israel and its foes was rejected by the Left, the ideologue Right and the Arabs and was supported by only a few who still believe in Benjamin Netanyahu.
What Happened?
The Trump administration realized that they are facing a predicament and decided that they do not need the headache and must step back plausibly. They stopped the process of the plan in its tracks and decided to buy time. As we saw, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ongoing declaration to apply sovereignty to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria died in Israel’s November 2019 election. The Trump administration decided to bury the plan and they found an excuse that will be palatable to the average Joe in the United States and Israel.
As the story goes, for public consumption, the UAE and Israel are to become buddy-buddy with diplomatic envoys exchanged at some time in the future, all with the help of the Trump administration.
The quid-pro-quo, Israel will not apply sovereignty – by no means annexation, which is the wrong terminology – to the territory marked for sovereignty.
From my sources in Israel, this move is good for all because the original plan the Trump administration laid out was simply terrible, a plan assembled by people who are clueless on the subject.
What Is Israel to Do?
By allowing the Palestinian Authority to rule over certain areas in Judea and Samaria, Israel has lost, or relinquished, its right to land that is rightfully hers. Therefore, Israel must now demand sovereignty for sovereignty: Extensive construction in Judea and Samaria.
More so, the land on which the Arabs Aka ‘Palestinians’ keep on illegally encroaching must be cleared of these land thieves for once and for all.
Commentary continues on Sunday, August 16, 2020
To so many in the world the Israel-UAE ‘Abraham Accord’ appears to be shiningly brilliant.
Here are some of the headlines:
“Netanyahu says deal with UAE will eventually lead to peace with Palestinians”
“Taking normalization over annexation, Netanyahu poised to enter exalted company.”
“Divisive PM pencils his name on a very short list alongside Begin, Rabin.”
“A wake-up call for Abbas”
“Israel-UAE deal sends message to hostile countries”
“UAE and Israel: A match made in heaven”
“The UAE-Israel peace deal: Walk over Talk”
But is it all so shiningly brilliant?
Let’s take a look.
Let’s say that Netanyahu’s sovereignty promise was not good and he decided that some peace treaty would be an appropriate substitute. If so, Netanyahu should be associated with the ‘Peace Now’ Leftist entity, whose slogan is: ‘Peace Now: Peace is better than the Greater Land of Israel.’
If Trump’s new plan, the rejection of sovereignty for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in exchange for a peace accord with a willing Arab country, is really a good diversion from the original plan, then PM Netanyahu has given up the land of Israel in exchange for peace and therefore, he belongs to the ‘Peace Now’ Leftist group and their beliefs and slogans, a loss-loss for Israel.
If PM Netanyahu’s sovereignty plan is not a good one, and it should be noted that apart from a number of regular Netanyahu supporters, the Left and Right in Israel and the Left in the US and the Arab states’ cadre opposed it, and Netanyahu decided to give up on it, then, the question is, why did he raise it up in a conversation so very often and talk about it for months on end and promised so many times he will apply sovereignty?
Will the lined-up borders, according to the Trump ‘Plan of the Century,’ that raise many alarming security issues for Israel, and the freeze and/or construction restrictions in Judea and Samaria the Trump Plan suggests continue unofficially? Will these confines continue quietly, without specific time to end it, even if sovereignty was not established and applied?
If Israel is to take a unilateral step and apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, it will be a betrayal of President Trump, in the middle of the game, and categorically a spit in his face. After All, in 1981, when Prime Minister Begin unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights he did not work on any deal with then-President Ronald Reagan.
In 1981 Washington they were furious. President Reagan ordered the suspension of a strategic memorandum of understanding between the countries and a delay in the purchase of defense products from Israel.
After the annexation, the skies did not fall, President Reagan was angry for a few months and all returned to normalcy.
It is clear that PM Netanyahu could care less about having Judea and Samaria as part of Israel. For Israel’s border security he wants to see the Jordan Valley as part of greater Israel but he could care less about the 500,000 Jews living and thriving in Judea and Samaria. All Netanyahu wants is to avoid those ugly pictures, for the world to see once again, Jews being dragged out of their homes by other Jews as it was in the unilateral evacuation of Israel’s Gush Katif, Gaza.
with a broken leg during the Knesset Golan Height annexation debate, December 14, 1981-Photographer Hanania Herman, GPO
Hardcore Issues
These are hardcore issues we need to present in a public debate:
It appears that Netanyahu does not care that the Arabs are building, illegally, in areas that are designated to be part of greater Israel. He will destroy any structure, built by Jews, that is considered ‘illegal’ and will give a free hand to Arabs to build, at will, anywhere in Judea and Samaria. And if Jews do not like it, let them leave the area.
Land and sovereignty is not what Benjamin Netanyahu cares about. He is certainly marching on a minefield.
Jared Kushner, a product of some Jewish education, has no idea that in true, as opposed to corrupted, history and law, all of Judea and Samaria, all of the Jordan Valley, legally belong to Israel. Sadly, the ignorance and cluelessness on Israel’s history runs deep, even among those not opposed to Israel and are not the Jewish state haters, what causes a great deal of damage to Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu, a product of clear Zionism should know better and even better as the Prime Minister of Israel.
However, Jared Kushner and his team and Benjamin Netanyahu and his clandestine work, unbeknown to the 8 million Jews who live in Israel, may have, TOGETHER, wrought the means by which an eventual Arab-Palestinian terror state will be carved out of the heart of Judea and Samaria.
All that I penned above makes no difference and does not matter neither to Jared Kushner nor to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
We, those who deeply care about the future of the only Jewish state in the entire world need to demand that construction in Judea and Samaria go into steroids mode and ALL Arab ‘foot on the ground’ illegal construction be dismantled and end for good!
