If this plan never sees the light of day, we won’t shed any tears. At J Street, we’ve been 100 percent clear that the effort led by Jared Kushner and David Friedman is not a good-faith attempt to bring about a peaceful, lasting and viable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.How do they know? They just do!
How do they know? They just do!
Instead, it’s designed to punish and alienate the Palestinians while embracing the hardline positions of the settlement movement -- helping the Israeli right to entrench the occupation and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Whether or not the world ever sees the details of their proposal, we know that everything this White House has already said and done has exacerbated the conflict and imperiled the long-term future of both peoples.How has the conflict been exacerbated? Were the Palestinians negotiating with Israel during the Obama years?
How has the long term future of both peoples been imperiled? They just know!
From slashing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and unilaterally recognizing Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, to refusing to support the two-state solution or even recognize the existence of the occupation, the Trump administration has empowered creeping annexation in the West Bank and undercut the prospects for peace.How do they know that Israeli building in areas that everyone knows would remain Israeli undercuts the prospects for peace? They just do!
The number of assumptions made by so many people who regard themselves as pro-Israel centrists is astounding. They just know that two states would end the conflict. They just know that Palestinians will abandon support for terror. They just know that calling Israel a Jewish state makes peace less likely. They just know that Palestinians aren't serious about the "right of return" for millions of the descendants of those who left in 1948.
The underlying assumption behind all of these assumptions is that they just know that the Palestinian decision makers are rational actors.
Are the Palestinian leaders rational?
They have rejected peace plans (and an Obama peace framework) numerous times. These would have led to a state and they said no. Doesn't that prove that they don't really want a state?
They have said that their top economic priority is to pay the people who have killed or tried to kill Jews as well as the families of the terrorists. Doesn't that prove that they really don't care about peace?
They have rejected US aid and Israeli tax dollars that are absolutely needed for their people. Doesn't that prove that the Palestinian leaders don't care about their own people?
But every time the Palestinians do something outrageous like these and many other examples, these "pro-Israel" liberals fall over themselves to justify the indefensible. The peace plans were an insult to their dignity, even though they went to (and beyond) 100% of the land area of the territories. The payments to terrorists are just like social security. They cannot accept aid with strings attached because they have pride.
Even if these excuses were true, it shows that Palestinians are not rational actors. They do not prioritize real peace and a state side by side with Israel. They do not teach peace to their children. They lionize terrorists. The list goes on and on.
If the Palestinian leaders are not rational now, isn't it the height of stupidity to assume that they will suddenly become rational and act the way Westerners do if they are rewarded with a state? What evidence is there that any of the assumptions about how they would act after an agreement will pan out?
A two state solution, which the entire world agrees is desirable, is the biggest case of wishful thinking in history. Assumptions with no basis in fact are tossed around as if they are proven true. Anyone who doubts it is vilified as being against peace or being Islamophobic or racist or whatever.
From everything we are hearing from Jared Kushner, he went into this by not making any of the assumptions that have not panned out. He looked at it with eyes that were not blinded by decades of conventional wisdom. And he is trying to find a solution that will make both sides as happy as both sides could be given the nature of the conflict.
It probably will fail, but not one diplomat in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been as clear-eyed and objective as Kushner has been. (The main reason the "pro-Israel" liberals don't believe this is because he is a religious Jew. Yes, that is stereotyping, and it is yet another false assumption from the "experts."