Deal of the Century: Changing the Language If Not Much Else

If Trump’s Deal of the Century had any binding enforcement capabilities, it would be an incredible coup for Israel. If the deal is merely a new starting point for negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, it is more of the same of what we have already seen for the past 70 years.

With one major difference!

The frame of reference has been changed. And the language used to describe the situation has changed. I do believe this “deal” is more of a new starting point for non-negotiations, unless the Palestinian Arab leadership tiger changes its stripes, that is. Let me show you some screenshots of portions of the document released last night and called, Peace to Prosperity:

This finally recognizes that the war in 1967 was a defensive war and Israel had no obligation to give up land to the aggressors. The fact that this was land originally captured and occupied by those very same aggressors in 1948 is nowhere stated in this document, but at least there is recognition of the fact that winners do not give up land. Israel did, patsies that we are! And the document says it clearly. So much for Israel stealing so-called Palestinian land (that never was ever Palestinian Arab land in the first place).

Finally, recognition for the Jewish refugees created at the same time as Arab refugees who fled from the war-torn region when the Arab states waged war against the Jews.

Later in the document, it is clearly stated that Israel is not going to be the solution for these Arab refugees, that not one Arab will set be allowed to move to Israel; rather, the Arab states must take responsibility for having kept these Arabs in limbo, using them as pawns, in the language of the Deal-of-the-Century document.

The deal also calls for the Arab states who expelled the Jews who had lived there for centuries (far longer than Arabs had resided in the British Mandate region, it should be mentioned) to provide long overdo compensation to Israel for having absorbed these Jewish refugees that they, the Arab states, created.

Changing the focus – pressure is now on the Palestinian Arab leadership to show that they care about a better future for their population. Israel is no longer regarded as the source of all the problems. Also, see the following statement:

Perhaps the Palestinian Arabs, the simple folk, that is, will rise up against the leaders who have used them and abused them. If this document gets translated into Arabic and distributed freely on the Internet for them to read, we might see a new Arab Spring in the PA, demanding what they deserve — leadership that cares about their welfare more than about killing Jews.

Let us now see how the Arabs living in these towns choose to define themselves with this option on the line: will they define themselves as Palestinians and vote to belong to the potential new sort-of-state, or will they vote to remain Israeli citizens, with all the benefits being part of Israel entails? If they vote to remain in Israel, then I anticipate a change in attitude and increased engagement in our Israeli way of life.

I am not happy with the Temple Mount remaining under Jordanian Waqf control, but the Deal-of-the-Century document does insist that everyone should be able to pray there and not just the Muslims. That will not go down well with the PA leadership. Complaints about Jews polluting the ground with our feet has been a rallying cry to kill Jews for a long long time.

Well, we built the barrier and that means we set ourselves up for this.

This is new!  We can walk back anything we compromise on if the Arabs-who-now-call-themselves-Palestinians do not abide by the rules.

The deal calls for release of Palestinians held in Israel and of Israelis held by Hamas. But:

And the Palestinian Arab prisoners that were convicted of murder or attempted murder or conspiracy to murder will not be released to the PA under any circumstance.

It is about time that this is said out loud. And it should be repeated over and over again. But I do take issue with the last sentence — it should say, instead, that Jordan has valiantly refused to treat its Palestinian Arab citizens as full fledged citizens with rights equal to those of the Bedouin within her bounds.

Here is the crux of the matter — the threat posed by the Iranian regime is the main threat to regional, if not global, peace and security. It is not Israel. If the world wants to protect itself against the Iranian machinations, it needs to work openly with Israel and not just secretly behind the scenes as has been happening more and more recently.

The Palestinian leadership has nothing to offer. They just have to get out of the way. The Deal of the Century seeks to do just that — to get them out of the way.

And it is up to Israel to act boldly now. The United States has given Israel the green light to finally declare our sovereignty over our own lands, the lands in which our peoplehood was born — and to do so immediately. If we do not blink, if the current government does not squander this opportunity, we stand to finally behave like the proud nation we should be.