Trump-Netanyahu Mapping Committee needs to deliver the map

 [Published 13 November 2020]

The threatened political demise of President Trump should provide the impetus for the joint Trump-Netanyahu Mapping Committee to publish its map delineating the areas of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to which Israeli sovereignty can be expanded under Trump’s Peace Plan released last January (Plan).

Trump made this intention clear when releasing his Plan:

“We will form a joint committee with Israel to convert the conceptual map into a more detailed and calibrated rendering so that recognition can be immediately achieved”

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman went further:

“The president got up and he made a speech. And he said there will be a committee and the committee will go through a process; the process will not last very long, but we want to go through a process.”

The Committee’s first meeting — held on February 24 — comprised:

• David Friedman, 
• Friedman's senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, and 
• Scott Leith, director of Israeli and Palestinian affairs in the US National Security Council
• Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, 
• acting Prime Minister’s Office chief Ronen Peretz, and 
• National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat.

Little has been heard of its progress since.

Trump would be following former Presidents who progressed their peace plans as fast and as far as they could before their four year terms of office ended:

• President Clinton brought together Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at Camp David as late as December 2000 who failed to reach agreement on Clinton’s proposed two-state solution before he stood down as President on January 20, 2001

• President George Bush — whose 2002 Road Map and 2007 Annapolis process never came to fruition — attempted to solidify gains made under Annapolis with UNSC Resolution 1850 —approved on December 16, 2008 — before he left office on 20 January 2009.

• President Barack Obama discarded the Annapolis process for his own peace initiatives, which had come to nought in April 2014 when negotiations were broken off. With no hope of reversing this deadlock - Obama regrettably refused to veto UNSC Resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016 as he was preparing to leave the White House on January 20, 2017 — which proposed a two-state resolution based on the pre-1967 armistice lines

Trump still has until January 20, 2021 left in his present term to try and bring his Plan to fruition.

Trump — unlike Clinton, Bush and Obama — has been unable to get the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to negotiate with Israel on his Plan.

However Trump can still materially advance his Plan by:

releasing the Mapping Committee’s map showing the areas of Judea and Samaria where Israeli sovereignty can be applied and delineating the boundaries of a demilitarized Palestinian Arab State

procuring consent to that map by Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrein and Sudan who have all normalized their relationships with Israel

getting other Arab states to normalize their relationships with Israel and agree to the Mapping Committee’s proposals

attempting to get the PLO to negotiate with Israel and

giving Israel the green light to apply sovereignty when it considers appropriate

Trump begun his presidency by visiting Saudi Arabia and pledging to bring peace to the Middle East. 

During his Presidency — Trump took significant steps to recognise Israel’s claim to 30% of Judea and Samaria by determining that:

• Israeli settlements located there were not inconsistent with international law
• the US would not distinguish between Israel and Judea and Samaria in its future dealings with Israel

Early release of the Mapping Committee’s map will ensure Trump’s momentum for peace continues full speed ahead until at least January 20, 2021 —  and beyond if re-elected for a second term.


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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

Israel - Fresh elections,not musical chairs

[Published May 2007]

The severity of the criticism heaped on Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Defence Minister Amir Peretz by the Winograd Commission demands the immediate calling of fresh elections to allow the Israeli electorate to have its say on whether the Government still retains the public's confidence.

The Government's culpability did not start and end with the Second Lebanon War.

The writing was on the wall long before the Winograd Commission delivered its' scathing interim Report.

Any idea of playing musical chairs by simply replacing Mr. Olmert and Mr Peretz must be resisted .

Every member of the Government must accept responsibility for the precarious position in which Israel finds itself today.

Mr Olmert's unqualified support for two States between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean has not got off the ground despite the active involvement of America, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

The Government seems incapable of formulating an alternative policy to break the deadlock such as proposing negotiations for the division of the West Bank between Jordan and Israel within the context of their present peace treaty. The best it has managed to do is express interest in discussing the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative, which had already been comprehensively rejected by previous Governments.

Gross errors of judgement in pursuing its policy of unilateral withdrawal such as the abandonment of the physical control of the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt and the failure to stop the indiscriminate rocketing of Israeli civilian population centres from Gaza have resulted in Israel's national and security interests being placed in great danger.

The Government has witnessed the rise of a Hamas dominated Government in Gaza, the unrestrained arming of myriad terrorist groups and the entry of Al Qaida into the conflict in the region. It has sat on its haunches and done little of any consequence in any of these areas.

Israel's Arab enemies now believe that further unilateral withdrawals by Israel can be achieved by the continued use of violence, forcing Israel to retreat to more vulnerable borders.

The Government's attempt to negotiate with Palestinian Authority President Abbas to the exclusion of Prime Minister Haniyeh has failed miserably. Photo opportunities at bi-weekly meetings are a waste of time and will not bring tangible results.

Contemplating the release of 1400 prisoners, many of them murderers, for the return of one soldier, indicates the sense of hopelessness in Government circles. Waiting in the background are the decisions that will then have to be taken to procure the release of two more soldiers captured by Hezbollah.

Surrounded by countries that do not recognise its' existence and threatened to be nuked by Iran and attacked by Syria, Israel's Government appears to be bankrupt of any effective policies to counter all the threats facing the country at this time.

Add to this a number of corruption scandals alleged against Government members and one gets a very depressing picture about this Government's ability to govern at one of the most critical stages in Israel's 59 year history.

The Government needs to come clean, clearly articulate its policies in all of these areas and go to the polls to obtain a mandate to implement them from the Israeli electorate.

Clearly the resignation of Mr Olmert and Mr Peretz will solve nothing. Clinging to power at any cost without facing up to the electorate is the last thing Israel needs at this critical juncture.

Only fresh elections can reverse the downhill slide into which Israel is rapidly descending. Surely any other course of action at this time is a sell-out and a subversion of the democratic process.