It's fascinating that the two state solution is such a dogma to so many that Jared Kushner saying that we should prioritize the actual human rights and dignity of Palestinians before we figure out the political parameters of a solution is mercilessly criticized.
All the 'experts' insist that the things they have been pushing since Oslo - 100% of which have failed - are not only the only solution, but the only priority.
And every one of them would swear they want the best thing for Palestinians.
Are Palestinians in better shape today, in their day to day lives, then they were in 2010? 2002? 1996? 1986? If the answer is no, then doesn't it make sense to start making them the priority, and not their failed leaders' demands?
But no one is even asking that question. Everyone is so hyper-focused on the steps to achieve a two state solution along the 1949 armistice lines that the people ostensibly being helped by that have been pushed aside and forgotten about.
If the point of a Palestinian state is to provide human rights and dignity to the Palestinians, and if it is obvious that any conceivable Palestinian state would do the opposite, then why are people still so focused on the state aspect and ignoring the human rights aspect?
News flash: Israel doesn't want to hurt Palestinian human rights. It wants to be safe from the minority that have been brought up to believe that murdering Jews is their highest goal. If that disappears, the other problems disappear as well.
An economic-first plan would give Palestinians more hope, more dignity, more agency in their own lives. It does not prejudice a final solution in any way.
And the "experts" are all up in arms about how anyone can dare to suggest something like that.
This is insanity.
Does anyone seriously disagree that the Palestinians have been thoroughly screwed by their leadership, both Hamas and Fatah?
And yet every previous "peace" plan is predicated on these immoral, corrupt leaders remaining in power to continue to screw their own people.
Isn't it time to think differently about the problem? Isn't it time to put the Palestinian people first, something that no one in their short history has ever done?
But no. The previous "experts"with the 100% failure rate know better.
These "experts" spent their entire careers talking to Arab leaders who insist on what they say is best for Palestinians but in reality who want to use them as pawns in their own political careers.
Since 1948.
The pattern is clear as day, but the "experts" still listen to them.
Has anyone ever asked the Palestinian people what they want? Has there ever been a good survey that asks the right questions, not questions that are loaded or superficial?
Here's just one example of how the "experts" get things wrong:
Since 1950, self-declared "leaders" of Palestinians, and UNRWA officials, have confidently claimed that the Palestinian Arabs do not want to be naturalized in their host countries.
Since 1950, every time Palestinians had a loophole to become citizens of Lebanon or Egypt, they jumped at it.
EVERY TIME.
How hard it is to realize that their leaders are lying, and the people want something different from what their leaders do?
Yet - where have you ever read this information, among the millions of words written about the conflict?
For people not blinded by the religion of Oslo, there is a huge gap between what we are told about what Palestinians want and what they really do want. And they are frightened to say their real desires because when it contradicts their leaders, the supposed united front is gone.
We don't know much about the Kushner plan, but we do know that the main obstacles to it are coming from the people who are invested in the old failed plans - and from Palestinian leaders who actively want to keep their own people in misery to act as cannon fodder against Israel. If one truly wants to improve Palestinians' lives, one should be 100% supportive of an out of the box plan that helps Palestinians and doesn't injure their political aspirations.
There is no downside, especially compared to the status quo.
But Westerners hate Trump so much that they want this to fail.
And Palestinian leaders will do everything they can to sabotage it because it threatens their power.
Where are the sane people who can look at what Kushner is saying objectively? There aren't many.
Yes, the plan will probably fail.
But people who want peace would want to separate Palestinians from their evil leaders. People who want peace would want to help them live dignified lives.
It appears that there are very few people who really want peace.