Secret talks paving way for Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The bombshell revelation that senior aides of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been holding secret talks for almost two months further confirms the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) acceptance of the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (Saudi Solution) as the basis for negotiating an end to 100 years of conflict between Arabs and Jews.

Such talks indicate the PLO has seemingly returned to its 1964 founding-Charter’s roots by no longer claiming sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) - a position the PLO only reversed in 1968 after Jordan’s loss of that territory to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

The Saudi Solution is breathtaking in the outcomes it promises - if implemented:

• Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will be merged into one territorial entity governed by the current Hashemite rulers of Jordan - with its capital being located in Amman -not Jerusalem
• The total shredding of the failed two-state solution adopted by the United Nations since the passage of Security Council Resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016
• The end of the 2002 Saudi Arabian proposal announced by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and subsequently adopted as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since June 1967 and Israel's acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital - in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel
• Recognition of Israeli sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for the first time in 3000 years.

Since its publication on June 8, 2022 in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News - the Saudi Solution - authored by Ali Shihabi - a confidant of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - has not been rated newsworthy or significant enough to be mentioned by:

• the international media,
• only two other political analysts - one of them after my urging
• any international think tanks and
• the United Nations

Amazingly - Jordan’s King Abdullah, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas and Saudi Crown Prince - now Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman - have not rejected the Saudi Solution in the last nine months - even though it clearly departs from the policies each of them has been espousing for decades.

These secret back-channel talks appear to have been deliberately leaked at this particular point of time for one reason: The threat posed to Netanyahu and Abbas concluding successful negotiations on implementing the Saudi Solution caused by Israel’s High Court of Justice demanding the Israeli Government produce a plan by April 2 for the demolition and evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar - an illegal Bedouin herding encampment in Area C of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) presently under Israel’s full security and administrative control.

Demolition of thousands of other illegally built Arab structures in Area C could follow - triggering violent PLO-Arab outrage causing a complete breakdown in negotiations to implement the Saudi Solution.

Netanyahu needs to persuade the Court to extend its April 2nd deadline to free himself from the negotiating straightjacket into which the Court has placed him.

The tenth adjournment of the Khan al-Ahmar case since 2018 will be easier for Netanyahu to obtain when the Court is informed that negotiations are being held with Abbas to prevent the demolition and evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar. 

PLO-Arab fears will also have been publicly assuaged.

Allocating sovereignty in part of Area C to the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine would spare most of those presently-illegal Arab buildings from demolition.

The Saudi Solution remains on track … the media and the UN remain dumbstruck

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Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

Judges jeopardize Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine negotiations

The Government of Israel has been ordered to formulate and submit to the High Court of Justice by April 2 its plan for demolishing and evacuating the illegal Bedouin encampment of Khan al-Ahmar – compliance with which could have serious international repercussions and jeopardize negotiations begun on January 24 to create the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

A clearly-frustrated Justice Sohlberg delivered the Court’s judgement on February 7th – Justices Baron and Willner concurring:

“... the existing situation is comfortable for it [the Israeli Government]: Once every few months it files a request for an extension, which the petitioner opposes and the court accedes to through gritted teeth, and the world carries on as normal; deciding not to decide. This mode of operation, which is perhaps possible in some circumstances outside of the court’s walls, is not acceptable to us, and certainly not for such a lengthy period of time.”

Sohlberg said the court understood that the government had only just taken office - but the Court surprisingly refused Netanyahu’s request for a four-month extension:

“when experience teaches us that one postponement leads to another and there is never a substantive answer.”

Eight adjournments had already been granted to earlier Israeli Governments grappling with achieving the peaceful outcomes expressed in the Court’s interim decision on 24 May 2018:

“We have come to the conclusion of this judgment. Our decision therein follows the letter of the law, according to which there is no legal cause to intervene in the decision of the minister of defense to execute the demolition orders issued for the illegal structures in Khan al-Ahmar.

The law does not ignore the human complexities naturally involved in a large-scale removal of illegal structures, despite their illegality. Law enforcement is important, as is the desire to enter discussions and reach a solution peacefully. The voices calling for discussions and a consensual solution were well heard in the proceedings in these petitions. The Court, too, asked to see whether there still remained a concrete proposal that could serve as a basis for such renewed discussions, despite the late stage in the process. On the other hand, the law is not subordinate to this desire.

At the end of the day, we are past the eleventh hour. As recalled, the first demolition orders were issued back in 2009. As worthy as the voices heard through the courtroom calling for collaboration and dialogue might be, they should have been directed at policy makers in real time over the years. 

The Court does not and cannot consider what the ideal solution for Khan al Ahmar residents might be. 

The Court judicially reviews the decisions made by the State. This review has yielded that, just as there was no cause to instruct the State to enforce the law when it sought to refrain from doing so, so there is no cause to instruct it to withhold enforcement when it wishes to proceed with it.

This conclusion is not the end of the road. The State has declared before the Court its willingness to enter into an honest dialogue with the compound residents to make practical arrangements for the evacuation and relocation to the Jahalin West site. One hopes this, in fact, will take place. The end of the road can be reached peacefully and consensually.”

A ninth adjournment would have maintained the delicate status quo since 2018 – also preserving thousands of illegal European Union- funded Arab structures from threatened demolition.

The “Palestinian Foreign Ministry” request that the United States and European Union intervene to prevent Khan Al Ahmar’s demolition would have been postponed.

The High Court of Justice has lobbed an unnecessary, politically-explosive time bomb into Netanyahu’s lap.

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Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

New two-state solution: Israel & Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

Indications that a new-two state solution - Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - continues to progress towards its successful implementation - were in evidence again this past week.

The demise of the two-state solution dominating the political discourse for the last 30 years - creating a new Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan - was summed up beautifully by veteran New York Times Opinion Columnist Thomas Friedman last December:

“A week of reporting from Israel and the West Bank has left me feeling that the prospect for a two-state solution has all but vanished. But no one wants to formally declare it dead and buried - because categorically ruling it out would have enormous ramifications. So, diplomats, politicians and liberal Jewish organizations pretend that it still has a faint heartbeat. I do as well. But we all know that the two-state option is not in a hospital. It’s in hospice. Only a miracle cure could save it now.”

Friedman has surprisingly failed to consider a new plan to replace it - published on June 8, 2022 and emanating from Saudi Arabia: Merging Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one new territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

This new entity will be governed by the current Hashemite rulers of Jordan and have its capital in Amman - not Jerusalem.

Friedman’s attitude is very puzzling since it was Friedman who first brought the 1993 two-state solution to the West from Saudi Arabia in an Op Ed article he wrote in the New York Times on February 17, 2002 headlined: "An Intriguing Signal From the Saudi Crown Prince".

Instead Friedman has concluded that the “most likely outcome" of the demise of the 1993 two-state solution will be:

“ a total mess that will leave Israel no longer being a bedrock of stability for the region and for its American ally, but instead, a cauldron of instability and a source of anxiety for the U.S. government.”

The following developments during the past week indicate Friedman has got it completely wrong - as implementation of the Saudi-based 2022 Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution - begun on January 24th with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise visit to Jordan’s King Abdullah - continues to take root.

United Nations, international media, analysts and think tanks continue to fail to even acknowledge the existence of the 2022 two state solution:

• Abdullah and US Vice President Kamala Harris met in the White House but made no mention of their countries joint affirmation of the 1993 two-state solution.
• Abdullah met with representatives of international and US Jewish organisations in Washington when he again failed to affirm his support for the 1993 two-state solution.
• Netanyahu discussed with investors during his three-day visit to Paris the possibility of building a network of underground highway systems across Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to enable the maintenance of territorial contiguity for both Israeli settlements and Palestinian Arab towns.

Friedman is in good company - as the United Nations, international media, analysts and think tanks continue to fail to even acknowledge the existence of the 2022 two state solution.

I asked 124596 members of the International Relations (IR) & Affairs Group and 6492 members of the International Relations and Diplomacy Group on Linked In this identical question:

"Have any members of this group published an analysis of the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on 8 June 2022?"

Their total silence has been deafening.

The High Court of Justice’s refusal to grant Israel’s Government a four month’s extension to formulate a plan to evacuate the illegal Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin encampment Court-ordered to be demolished in the West Bank may be just the catalyst needed to expedite the implementation of the 2022 two-state solution.

Amazing times indeed...

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Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

Abdullah & Bibi keep moving on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

Jordan’s King Abdullah and Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu continue their march forward to implementing the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (Saudi Solution) – begun with their surprise meeting on 24 January clarifying that the Hashemite rulers of the newly-created entity of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) would also have custody of the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem.

Custodianship had not been specifically determined under the Saudi Solution and its subsequent revision.

King Abdullah’s reasons for supporting the Saudi Solution became apparent during his keynote address at the 71st National Day of Prayer in Washington last week:

“Instead of additional political process, His Majesty stated that "we need our faith: the moral imagination to trust in a better, more just world" to create peace.”

“We need the will to see our shared humanity, to rise beyond divisive rhetoric, and to establish the mutual trust that our future so sorely requires,"

The Saudi Solution trashes the two-state solution previously supported by King Abdullah Khancreating an independent Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan - and will end the divisive rhetoric that has accompanied this deeply flawed and unimplemented two-state solution for the last 30 years since first proposed:

“Today, the Palestinian problem can only be solved by redefining it. The issue in this day and age should not only be about reclaiming ancestral land as much as it is about the urgent need to have a legal identity and a universally respected citizenship that allows one to lead a normal life in the modern world.”

King Abdullah’s epiphany in backing the Saudi Solution - when he could have rejected it at any time after its publication on 8 June 2022 – augurs well for its successful implementation.

Netanyahu’s decision to ask Israel’s High Court of Justice for yet another delay in the state’s submission of plans for razing the illegal West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar – indicates Netanyahu’s steadfast commitment to implementing the Saudi Solution.

In its two-page submission the Government blamed the delay in part on the protracted two-month period it took to form the government and asked to submit an evacuation plan in four months marking the ninth time Israel has sought to push the matter back.

Netanyahu’s requested extension this time has added significance – being made as the implementation of the Saudi Solution has begun - one of whose revolutionary and game-changing features calls for the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between Israel and the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine – which would see disputes such as Khan al Ahmar become ancient history.

The era of Palestinian land grabs and European Union interference in erecting structures overnight to establish facts on the ground would be ended.

An unperturbed Netanyahu is quietly implementing the Saudi Solution

Netanyahu’s decision has caused consternation among Israel’s right wing with MK Danny Danon, chairman of World Likud and Israel’s former ambassador to the U.N stating:

“In attempting to avoid the immediate eviction of Khan al-Ahmar, the government’s response to the Supreme Court sets a dangerous precedent and gives the Palestinian Authority free rein to construct additional illegal outposts. This government was elected to change the floundering policies of the previous government rather than to continue with their oversights. It is not too late to act and evict Khan al-Ahmar.”

An unperturbed Netanyahu is quietly implementing the Saudi Solution in accordance with his stated philosophy:

“I don’t need the public fanfare, I don’t need it. You know, if you come to an agreement, it will be publicised. If you don’t come to an agreement, nothing happens. I think we can come to amazing agreements.”

The Saudi Solution continues to move forward....

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades