Daily Times

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced his plan for Israel-Palestine peace at a White House event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing by his side. He proposed creating a Palestinian state as a part of the Middle East peace plan and letting Israel maintain the control of West Bank settlements. This has been rejected by Palestinians. A few Arab countries considered Trump’s plan as an important starting point for the return to negotiations; not realising the US and Israel have shown utter disregard for the UNSC resolutions and agreements reached in the past. This plan envisages a small portion of land for Palestine. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, however, described “deal of the century,” as the “slap of the century.”

Palestinians had earlier refused to deal with the Trump Administration as a protest on moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian problem continues to defy any solution, primarily due to the intransigence of Israel

Every US administration in the past protected, sustained, armed and financed the Israeli state, which is why the issue remained unresolved for 72 years. On May 14, 1948, the UN (the successor to the League of Nations) implemented the 1947 UN Partition Plan; establishing the state of Israel. With the backing of the West, Israel continued usurping the Palestinian land and baulked at UN resolutions giving the Palestinians the right to have an independent state. In July 2004, after 37 years of the 1967 War, an international court declared the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel as illegal. The International Court of Justice, in its judgment, had declared the West Bank barrier built by Israel as illegal, and that Israel was under an obligation to cease forthwith the construction of the wall built in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around Jerusalem, and to demolish the raised structures.

During the last 50 years, several so-called peace initiatives have been taken in the context of Security Council Resolution 242, but none has succeeded. The Palestinian problem continues to defy any solution, primarily due to the intransigence of Israel, blindly supported and encouraged by the US. The Palestinian tragedy has been further compounded with the treachery of Arabs, duplicity and silence of the international community and in no small measure, due to their incompetent leadership, which preferred the rhetoric to reality and indulged in the romantic belief that the justice of their cause will eventually prevail. Indeed, the Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem; areas that Israel captured in 1967.

Muslims throughout the world expressed concern over Israeli brutalities, but due to the internal conflicts and sectarian divide, they could not forcefully raise their voice against cruel and brutal killings of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.

Such indifference and apathy of the Umma encourage anti-Muslim forces to resort to their violent acts of terrorism. Despite various UN resolutions and accords, including Oslo Accord for which America was a guarantor, there seems to be no end in sight to the atrocities perpetrated on the Palestinians. Former US President Obama’s statement that Israel had the right to defend was reflective of the fact that he could not distinguish between the aggressor and the victims of aggression. Israel wants to evict Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank so that it can merge those territories in Israel. But such a move is fraught with extreme dangers and implications.

It has to be mentioned that the Oslo Accord was based on the principle of “Land for Peace,” and the US was a guarantor for the implementation of the agreement. But Israel would not implement it. Even former US President Bush’s “road map” had been shredded into bits by Israel when Sharon had unilaterally announced to withdraw from Gaza Strip years ago instead of completing the talks about total withdrawal from Palestine lands. It is too well known that the Israeli lobby afflicts US Congress and the President. The immense power of the Jewish lobby is a proven fact. Nobody on Capitol Hill will dare defy this all-powerful lobby. There is no denying the fact that the last thing Israel wanted was a partner for peace, as this would entail giving up the land. In 2010, the then-premier, Ehud Olmert, undertook to unilaterally delineate Israel’s permanent borders, according to which Palestinians would have had just 12 per cent of historic Palestine in noncontiguous chunks. Olmert had also been threatening the reoccupation of Gaza. If the Israeli leadership had truly wanted a peace partner, it would have actively engaged Hamas because Hamas has the backing and the trust of the Palestinian people and is, therefore, in a position to deliver the goods.

The then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had said to a joint meeting of the US House and Senate as long ago as 1975: “I urge you, in the most emphatic term, to lend the Palestinian people your understanding and support. Help them to overcome despair and frustration. The continuation of neglect and defiance is but an open invitation to violence, negativism and extremism.”

Of almost all nations, the US remains the sole dissenter in the long over-due trend of establishing contacts with the Palestinians. Even when it comes with some plans for peace, it favours Israel by encouraging settlements on Palestinian lands, as is the case with the latest plan of President Donald Trump.

The writer is a freelance columnist