Flying to Israel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today after nailing down a $110 billion arms deal, 70-year-old President Donald Trump Looks for the “ultimate deal” between Israel and Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t know what to expect after National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster refused to say May 17 whether or not Temple Mount containing Jew’s holiest site called the Western Wall or the backside of King Solomon’s second temple was part of Israel. Located in Jerusalem’s Old City, known as the so-called Arab sector, McMaster was reluctant to antagonize Palestinians in advance of Trump’s trip. Palestinians seek—and demand—East Jerusalem containing Muslim’s third holiest site, the gold-domed al-Aqsa Mosque. Generations of peace efforts have failed, including former President Barack Obama’s 2014 effort run by former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry couldn’t get PLO Chairman and West Bank leader 82-year-old Mahmoud Abbas to reconcile differences with Gaza’s Hamas leaders, deciding what to do with thorny issues like Palestinians right-of-return, borders of a new Palestinian state and the fate of Jerusalem, something Israel calls its “eternal capital.” No one really believes that Israel will control in any settlement al-Aqsa Mosque. Since running for president in 2016, Trump hinted he’s open to moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, prompting angry reactions from the Arab World.. Trump said he wasn’t going to the Mideast to “lecture” parties but to listen to what they want in a peace settlement. Trump put his 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner and longtime business lawyer Jason Greenblatt in the role of fashioning a workable Mideast peace deal, both having a closer vested interest than Kerry.
Israeli officials don’t know what to expect with McMaster’s recent remarks or Trump urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go easy on settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinians look forward to Trump stepping into the thorny Mideast peace process, showing more flexibility, known to get down to brass tacks. Calling Trump a “serious president” who “seeks to have a real deal, not just managing the conflict,” Senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub welcomed Trump’s Mideast trip. Confirming Trump’s attempt a Mideast peacemaking, U.S. Israeli Amb. David Friedman said Trump looks “for the parties to meet with each other without preconditions and to begin a discussion that would hopefully lead to peace.” While discounted by the American Press in its bias against Trump, Trump actually has a real shot at pulling off a peace deal.
Netanyahu and his conservative coalition partners like leader of Jewish Home Party Naftali Bennett don’t know what to expect with Trump, fearing too many concessions. But like Bennett, Palestinians also don’t know what to expect, fearful that Trump would also expect too many concessions. Palestinians don’t have much leverage today with the government split between Hamas in Gaza and PLO in the West Bank. Hamas’s former leader in exile Khaled Meshaal insists that Israel turn back the pre-1967 War borders to Palestinians. Meshaal and Abbas know that Palestinians had no sovereign territory before the 1967 Six-Day-War. Territories seized by Israel as spoils included Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan heights. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979 in exchange for a peace treaty.
Former President Jimmy Carter and the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the deal known as the Camp David Accords. Now deceased Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned Gaza to Palestinian rule in 2005. Since then, Hamas has fought three wars with Israel, raining only death and destruction on the Gaza Strip. Hamas militant wing Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades continues to stockpile rocket and build tunnels for the next war with Israel. Hamas brainwashes its Gaza people that it’s going to conquer Israel and return Palestinians to their rightful land. What they don’t tell Gaza residents is that Palestinians never had sovereign land in any of the so-called occupied territories. Without Israeli spoils, Palestinians would have no claim to land in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Before 1948 Israeli statehood, the British held the British Mandate of Palestine. Before that it was the Ottoman Turks [1518-1917].
Trump wants Israeli and Palestinians to say what they want in preliminary Mideast peace talks. Palestinians no doubt want Israel to leave land captured in the 1967 Six-Day-War. That’s a non-starter because Israel won’t give up the strategic high-ground in Syria’s Golan Heights. Returning most of the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem won’t be a problem unless Israel doesn’t get King Solomon’s Western Wall. Both sides have much to gain by negotiating with Trump, especially if they’re serious about a two-state solution. As long as Hamas and the PLO remain divided, it’s going to be difficult to negotiate a peace deal with half the Palestinian population. Team Trump should work on reconciling differences between Hamas and PLO. No one on Team Trump will accept Palestinian terrorism, regardless of the reasons. Peace can only come when both sides renounce violence and go to the table.
