Changing State of Israel's Peace Plans | World Defense

Changing State of Israel's Peace Plans

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December 12, 2019 Topic: Secureity Region: Middle East Blog Brand: Middle East Watch Tags: IsraelWarTerrorismPalestineNational Security
The Changing State of Israel's Peace Plans
In the past Israel acted in the belief that it was better to deal with the devil you know, that is to say, the leader of a terrorist organization, and to wait until he was ready to negotiate peace. But those days seem to be over.
Achieving peace is harder than waging war because it requires others to consent whereas war can be a unilateral act. Recently, Israel assassinated the Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, Bahaa Abu al-Ata. It marks a change in strategy.

In the past Israel acted in the belief that it was better to deal with the devil you know, that is to say the leader of a terrorist organization, and to wait until he was ready to negotiate peace. For example Yasser Arafat of the PLO. The assassination of Islamic Jihad leader Bahaa Abu al-Ata indicates that Israel is following the United States’ policy and practices, that of targeted killings. Behind the change in policy and practice is a sense that peace hasn’t been achieved by waiting and even in signing international treaties.

This year Israel’s marks twenty-five years of a peace treaty with its eastern neighbor, Jordan. It was signed sixteen years after a Peace Treaty was signed with its southern neighbor, Egypt. The two treaties have similarities and differences.

The most prominent similarity is the recognition of the Jewish state of Israel by a neighboring Muslim state and the end of a state of war. Next down the list of similarities are those that few wish to proclaim at any anniversary ceremony. Both treaties saw the assassination of one of its signatories by its own citizens. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was gunned down a few years after signing the treaty with Israel and so, too, wasIsraeli prime minister Yitzchak Rabin a year after signing the treaty with Jordan.

Both treaties were brokered with financial assistance as a significant incentive by a Democratic president in the American White House, respectively President Jimmy Carter for the treaty with Egypt and President Bill Clinton for the treaty with Jordan. Both Egypt and Jordan had occupied the territory between 1947–1967 that the United Nations on November 29, 1947, had declared would be the State of Palestine thereby preventing its creation.

In the peace treaties with Israel, both Egypt and Jordan insisted on taking back territory conquered by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 waged between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and others. Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, and Jordan recently received the Naharayim Park region, both with glee.

Yet, both Egypt and Jordan have refused to actively assist in the regional Middle East peace processes of the territory they didn’t take back, Gaza and the West Bank. Neither Egypt nor Jordan have taken any measures either from 1947–1967 or after signing the treaties with Israel to assist in the creation of a State of Palestine.

Neither has stepped in to assist in handling Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist activities in Gaza and the West Bank although both are actively involved elsewhere in doing so, for example in Syria. To be sure the often referred to Occupied West Bank was so named because it was the West Bank of the river Jordan section of the Kingdom of Jordan to differentiate it from the east bank section of the same river and the same Kingdom. The reasons can be summed up as a state and its leader will only act in their own interests, that being a Machiavellian or Realpolitik/Realist view of the world.

The differences between the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan are also those that few wish to proclaim at any anniversary ceremony. The focus of the treaty with Egypt was security and with Jordan was economics. This year forty-one years after the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt for security reasons it could at best be viewed as a state of cold peace or no-war and dependent on who is running Egypt. And that has had its ups and downs during the Arab Spring changes of leadership in Egypt since 2011. There is little if any interaction between the populations of the two states.

This year twenty-five years after the signing of a peace treaty with Jordan for economic reasons it could at best be viewed as a state of sole traders. Less than 1 percent of Israel’s imports come from its eastern neighbor at around $80 million each year. Exports are five times as much but 80 percent of those go on to third states, primarily in the Persian Gulf.

Shared infrastructure envisaged in the treaty hasn’t materialized. For example, the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea borders with the Jordanian port city of Aqaba. Preserving 230 Israeli jobs in Eilat has prevented Israel from using the Jordan port. Similarly, Jordan doesn’t use Eilat’s airport. The most successful venture is the daily commute of two thousand Jordanians to work in Eilat’s tourist hotels. Israel’s unemployment rate stands at 4.7 percent but Jordan doesn’t reciprocate such employment. The railway link between Jordan and Israel has not been connected, with a mere ten-kilometer gap. So, Jordan doesn’t use Israel’s Mediterranean port of Haifa. Similarly, electricity grids that could share power to the advantage of the environment are not connected.
Recently, Israel marked more publicly the assassination of Rabin than the peace treaty with Jordan. And then out of frustration assassinated the leader of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Recently Jordan marked the peace treaty by returning it’s ambassador to Tel Aviv after having recalled him because Jordanian citizens had been imprisoned in Israel. Israel’s ambassadors to Egypt and Jordan spend more time in Israel than there due to security risks at their embassies.

Such observations are not encouraging for those who wish to further existing peace treaties or sign new ones in the Middle East be they in Israel, in Egypt that borders with Gaza, in Jordan that borders with the West Bank, the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere and indeed in the White House. Only time will tell if targeted killings, or assassinations, is a better means. To be sure, the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has responded to the killing of its leader in Gaza, Bahaa Abu al-Ata, by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. Yet, Israel is clearly frustrated by a lack of progress at the negotiation table, so assassinating for Middle East peace may be its new method for the moment.
So, I will suggest a third alternative to that of assassinations and international treaties. I suggest that the only foreseeable way forward for peace in the Middle East is by the man in the street who is engaged in daily activities, as said: “bottom-up from society and not top-down by governments or armies.”

Dr. Glen Segell is a research fellow at the Ezri Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies, University of Haifa.
 

Falcon29

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It's the opposite , Israel is satisfied with lack of progress and works to stall the peace process whenever it can. That buys it time to build hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and keep Palestinian independence off the table. It is hoping to facilitate expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank via trying to persuade other nations to take them in. Egypt and Jordan are not going to do that, as they believe a Palestinian state should be formed in the West Bank and Gaza.

Also the article is referring to Jordan, Syria as 'Muslim nations' when at the time these nations were Arab nationalists and more anti-religion. So was the Palestinian PLO. He's clearly directing this rhetoric at Western audiences because that is where the Israeli's want to get their backing and support from. So why not associate Arab nationalist seculars with modern day ISIS fanatics, lol. Since Americans don't really know our history too well.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas aren't terrorist organizations in majority of the world. That's a dehumanization tactic directed at Palestinians from day one. No matter how lawful their military tactics are, they are dehumanized in such way as part of an Israeli psychological warfare against Palestinians. It only works when you are more powerful. If Palestinians were to become the more powerful side tomorrow, they can dehumanize Israeli's in this manner too, and much of the world will accept such connotations since they only power seems to dictate reality and not ethics.

Israel has been assassinating Palestinians forever and this was not new. Especially in Gaza where it happens every year. It's not related to a potential two state solution plan.

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So now getting to the point, it seems he and Israel are frustrated there hasn't been open cooperation and normal ties with Arab states. And that is simply because Arabs will not accept having open relations with Israel until Israel advances the Arab Peace Initiative which is a two state solution plan.
 

Falcon29

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The 'terrorist' label makes no sense and is intended to prevent solutions to conflict. People who use these labels don't want peace. If we go by that definition, then every country is a terrorist country. They all bomb people for political purposes to achieve political objectives. Air strikes are much more deadly and much more terrifying to witness then small rocket shelling. So the usage of this term is in order to avoid peace or to dehumanize a people.

So I propose a solution for the Arab world:

Form an Islamic Caliphate, develop technology, infrastructure and military industry. Start your own 'war on terror' against all those who seek harm and destruction of the Middle East and its people. This 'war on terror' doesn't even require military means. Even a propaganda campaign and economic/cyber warfare will suffice. Any nation that tries to interfere in way of life of ME people or to destroy and kill them, put such political, economic leaders and media moguls on the list, or anyone else like professors, lawyers, etc... who are involved in the US or Europe to work to make the US and EU anti-Arab and anti-Muslim and to use the US and EU as military base/tool to satisfy their genocidal creed against the Arabs. Then have your mainstream media industry and politicians warn those nations of 'providing or attempting to provide acts of worship for the Jews' and that it will have consequences if they take that path.

So as they throw this terrorist label on the Arabs, throw labels such as 'worshippers of Jews' , 'Jew lovers', 'mentally ill', 'obsessed losers', etc. at them in order to dehumanize them and force the American and European media to expose their people to such labels and drag the Jews into it since they like to behave like they are working for American or European interests when they are just using these nations as platforms to advance their Israeli agenda. Never allow Americans or Europeans to describe their adventures in the ME as 'war on terror' or anything else. It must be described as 'attempting to provide acts of worship to the Jews'. Drive a wedge between Jewish Americans and non-Jewish Americans. Make Jewish Americans very uncomfortable and mentally distressed by associating them with anything that happens by a foreign nation in the ME.

They will either drop the 'terrorist' dehumanization label or try to rally Europeans and Americans even harder against Muslims. If they do it, then Jews expose themselves as supremacist fascists and not the civil rights activists they make themselves out to be in those nations. Also it will lead to downfall of EU and America. Either way it is a lose-lose situation for the Jews.

Jews are very stubborn and want to have everything go their way without any compromise. Arabs can't afford to live with that and need to challenge them. Arabs are too kind as a people and they assume all good in everyone. Unlike in America where we are suspicious of peoples intentions. Arabs need some American mindset on how to deal with such challenges.
 

Falcon29

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Americans and Europeans can't handle real war or facing dehumanization for the sake of a minority. Arabs just don't realize their potential.

Obviously CIA/Mossad agents would start pouring into the ME in such a scenario. It will be very easy to identify Jews from normal white Americans or Europeans. Jews are not white, they are ethnically Jewish and because Arabs are kind and naive they often allow in Jews with forged passports and fake names enter their territory to conduct assassinations of Palestinians. Arabs see a foreign passport and Westerners and they get excited and tell them welcome to our country. What should happen is have people in private rooms at air ports and whenever you see a group of 'white men' together you send someone out to interrogate them. Someone that knows what Jews look like and how to differentiate them from whites.

This stuff is so easy but the Arabs don't like taking advice from people who know better.
 
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