Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine key to end conflict in Middle East

 

Visits to Saudi Arabia this past week by Jordan’s King Abdullah, PLO President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could be the prelude to negotiations with Israel to implement the Saudi-based 2022 Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (Saudi Solution) and end 100 years of unresolved conflict between Jews and Arabs.

These three visits - coming within days of each other - have taken place amidst dizzying diplomatic and economic activity over the last six weeks that have seen an easing of tension in the Middle East - including:

• Saudi Arabia and Iran agreeing in March to re-establish diplomatic relations after a 7 years break - promising:

“keenness to exert all efforts towards enhancing regional and international peace and security”

• Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 18  - coming days after Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia on the first such trip since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

• Qatar and Bahrain announcing on April 12 that they would resume diplomatic relations

• Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launching four new special economic zones in Saudi Arabia on April 14 - offering opportunities for knowledge-sharing and creating tens of thousands of jobs.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu believes these Abbas and Haniyeh visits to Saudi Arabia and the rapprochement with Syria and Iran are:

“Maybe to tell them they are going to have to prepare themselves - maybe to try to tell them to stop doing the kind of terror they foment”

The Saudi Solution achieves that outcome - calling for:

• The merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial unit under Hashemite rule to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - with its capital to be Amman - not Jerusalem.

• Citizenship in the new entity being granted to all stateless Palestinian Arabs no matter where they presently reside.

• Jerusalem being recognised as Israel’s sole capital and

• Sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) being vested in the Jewish people for the first time in 3500 years.

The common denominator existing between King Abdullah, Abbas, Haniyeh and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) since the publication of the Saudi Solution on June 8, 2022 has been their failure to expressly reject the Saudi Solution - even though it trashes separate policies and agendas espoused by each one of them for decades.

For MBS in particular - the Saudi Solution:

• Shreds Saudi policy pursued since 2002 and adopted as the Arab Peace Initiative: Creating an independent Palestinian State between Israel and Jordan with its capital located in East Jerusalem (two-state solution)

• Terminates Saudi Arabia’s endorsement of United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 in 2016 seeking a two-state solution.

Successfully implementing the Saudi Solution will establish a conflict-free zone in Israel, Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank)  - complementing MBS’s amazing economic plans for Saudi Arabia -dubbed Vision 2030 - including trillion-dollar investments in mega-developments Neom and Diriyah.

King Abdullah, Abbas and Haniyeh have also unsuccessfully pursued the two-state solution since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Implementing the Saudi solution offers them a return to what actually existed  - and worked - between 1950 and 1967.

Three major hurdles to implementing the Saudi Solution have been resolved in principle in the Saudi Solution:

• Who governs the newly-merged entity
• Where the capital of that new entity will be located
• Recognition of Israeli sovereignty claims to part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)

Security control of all the territory west of the Jordan River is the last major issue requiring resolution.

Ending conflict in the Middle East - not perpetuating it - has become Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic agenda.

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

An analyst discusses Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

 

An analyst has finally surfaced to break 10 months of silence by analysts worldwide refusing to analyse or discuss the 2022 Saudi-based conversation:

Me: You need to consider the Saudi-based plan dispassionately on its merits. The whole world is concerned with the Palestinian issue and many solutions have been proposed from around the world in the past 100 years - all of which have not resulted in ending the conflict. This latest Saudi solution could be the solution to succeed where all others have failed. Shihabi [the solution’s author -ed] is a confidant of Crown Prince and Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman - and a member of the Board advising the Crown Prince on Neom - a US $500 billion mega city being developed in north-west Saudi Arabia. Bin Salman has not rejected Shihabi's plan in the ten months since its publication - even though it reverses Saudi foreign policy for the last 20 years. I urge you once again to look at the Saudi plan objectively as the circuit breaker to end this long-running and tragic conflict between Arabs and Jews.

Ismail: The last advice Palestinians need is from a fascist psycho dictator MBS and his fantasy Neom team. You have cynically said the proposal would be circuit breaker, but for who? For Israel of course because that would be on the terms of a war criminal fascist settler state Israel, certainly never for oppressed Palestinians. It’s shocking to see shills like you advocating for something that is way out of line from the UN simply because it’s on the terms of oppressor state Israel. Would you apply the same logic to Ukraine under occupation, treading over the main stakeholders—the natives under brutal occupation—by adopting a proposal from the illegal oppressor occupier state’s new found friend; or go back even further, back German Nazi state and use a proposal that is “circuit breaker” acceptable to Nazi state? History shows, as far as natives and the colonised people is concerned, while coexistence within one state solution with natives living alongside the settler generation may be acceptable, nothing would be acceptable to colonised natives if it means they are being transferred over or bundled up together and removed to form a separate entity. Israel may have the best weapons on its side for now; nothing lasts forever.

Me: Your profile describes you as a Middle East strategic advisor & compliance professional. You continue to refuse to discuss the Saudi-solution - attacking its origin, its author and its next King. This is a plan that needs to be considered seriously by you. It is in my opinion a circuit breaker that is beneficial to both Jews and Arabs - whilst requiring both of them to make compromises which is what usually happens in conflicts such as this one. The Plan states: "The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world." That is what this plan promises if implemented. Reject it if you will - and perpetuate the conflict. Accept it - and end the conflict. Which choice as a strategic advisor would you advise the Palestinians to accept?

Ismail abruptly ended our discussion when asked why he thought PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh have not similarly denounced and rejected the Saudi-based plan for the last ten months.

Next analyst please...

@IsraeliPM,@special_royal,@SecBlinken,@UN_Spokesperson, @alishihabi, @JosepBorrellF #israel, #palestine, #jordan, #saudiarabia, #middleeast

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

MBS: Is Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution dead or alive?

 

Following the announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran intend resuming diplomatic relations within the next two months - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) - needs to urgently answer this one question: 

“Is the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on  June 8, 2022 by your confidant Ali Shihabi dead - or is it still alive?”

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran after two of its diplomatic posts were attacked in Tehran and Mashhad in 2016 by demonstrators protesting Saudi Arabia’s executions of 47 people convicted of terrorism - including Shia preacher Nimr al-Nimr and al-Qaeda ideologue Fares al-Shuwail.

MBS’s answer will help give meaning to the final sentence intriguingly included in the Joint Trilateral Statement by the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran issued on March 10th:

“The three countries expressed their keenness to exert all efforts towards enhancing regional and international peace and security.”

Has Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei decided to abandon Iran’s call for the elimination of Israel and accept Israel’s reality as expressed in the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution?

“Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, by the region around it.”

Is Paramount Leader Xi Jinping of China - a permanent member of the UN Security Council - ready to consider replacing the UN’s failed 2016 two-state solution with the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution?

MBS’s response will also confirm or reject the claim by Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief - Prince Turki Al-Feisal - that the Kingdom was sticking to the terms of the failed 2002 Arab Peace Initiative in its drive to normalise relations with Israel:

"The terms are well-known. The creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with recognised borders and Jerusalem is its capital, and the return of Palestine refugees."

"What I have said was not my opinion, but it was declared by officials. I trust the officials when they say anything, and anything made by media is nonsense."

The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative has been rejected by every Israeli government in the past 20 years. Its use by date has long expired.

Several Arab states have bypassed it and forged ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords. The Aqaba Summit seeks horizons for peace.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution shreds the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative by calling for:

• The merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one sovereign territorial entity
• Having its capital in Amman and not Jerusalem
• Being governed by the current rulers of Jordan for the last 100 years - the Hashemites - not the PLO or Hamas.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution would have needed MBS’s approval before its publication in the Government-controlled Al Arabiya News - given it was trashing Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy for the previous 20 years.

No Saudi Arabian citizen could expect to be walking Riyadh’s streets the day after making such a public statement without MBS consent. Yet its author - Ali Shihabi - remains a member of the Board advising MBS on the construction of a US$500 billion futuristic mega city called Neom in north western Saudi Arabia - covering an area the size of Israel.

Significantly MBS has not rejected the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution in the 10 months since its publication. Neither have the leaders of those Arab parties most affected: Jordan’s King Abdullah, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh - whose policies for the past 25 years will also become ancient history.

Time for MBS to break his silence by answering this one pressing question definitively and without further delay.

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

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can avoid humanitarian disaster

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestine Liberation Organisation President Mahmoud Abbas need to break their silence and confirm or deny whether two of their senior officials have been discussing implementing the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution or alternative solutions in secret back channel meetings for the last two months.

Answering this question undercuts Netanyahu’s predilection for secret negotiations articulated by him on December 15, 2022:

“You know, I’m sort of a champion of a slight twist in what Woodrow Wilson said in the Versailles Peace Conference. He said he believed in open covenants, openly arrived at. I believe in open covenants, secretly arrived at or discreetly arrived at...

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

That luxury is no longer available - nor is responding to reporters’ questions by “neither confirming nor denying” good enough at this critical juncture--having regard to:

• the rapidly deteriorating political, legal and security situations in Israel, Gaza and Judea/ Samaria (West Bank) and
• the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran
• Israelis in their hundreds of thousands - demonstrating for the last 10 weeks to protect Israel’s High Court of Justice from the reforming zeal of the current Government - are probably unaware of the Court’s inexplicable intrusion into decisions properly the Government’s to make - placing these protestors own lives in jeopardy.

The High Court of Justice on May 24, 2018 rejected a final appeal by 200 residents of an illegally constructed Bedouin encampment - Khan Al Ahmar - when three judges unanimously decided the Government had the right “under the letter of the law” to demolish and evacuate its residents.

Nine adjournments had been granted since then until 1 February  this year when these three Judges refused to grant the newly-installed Netanyahu Government a tenth adjournment for a further four months - creating an immediate political crisis by ordering the Government to come up with a plan of evacuation by April 2, 2023 and relisting the matter for final hearing on May 1, 2023.

This act of judicial petulance placed the Government in an intolerable political bind that could have been avoided by simply granting the further adjournment.

Court dates are deadlines that cannot be ignored.

The Judges clearly had had enough of these adjournments - oblivious apparently to the political ramifications of what they were causing by refusing another.

Successive Governments grappling with the 2018 decision had clearly indicated the Court’s order was too controversial and inflammatory to deal with - to be put off to another date and time.

Netanyahu and Abbas now need to neutralize the April 2nd and May 1st Court-imposed deadlines.

Thousands of other illegal Arab structures similarly face demolition in Area C. Any perceived threat that they might be demolished could trigger a chain of violent protests and reactions causing a major humanitarian disaster.

Netanyahu and Abbas need to come clean and persuade the Court on 1 May — whether a plan of evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar has been filed by 2 April  or not - that negotiations have been commenced between them to find a solution whose successful implementation will render the demolition of virtually all illegal Arab structures in Area C unnecessary.

The Saudi-based plan - calling for Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be divided between Israel and the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - provides such a solution.

The High Court of Justice needs to climb down from its impetuous incursion into making political decisions clearly the province of Government - by granting another adjournment.

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

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...

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

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

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine to control Jerusalem holy sites

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's surprise visit to see King Abdullah in Amman last week was made to assure Abdullah that custodianship of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem would be vested in the newly-created entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - should the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria be implemented (Saudi Solution). 

Jordan is the custodian of the Islamic holy sites under the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace treaty. King Abdullah needed to know that implementation of the Saudi Solution would result in the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine becoming the successor custodian - not Saudi Arabia. 

Netanyahu's visit took place as direct contacts between Israel and Saudi Arabia have been reported. Saudi Arabia's consent would have been provided to enable Netanyahu to give Abdullah the assurance he needed. The Palace's statement confirmed that:

"King Abdullah stressed the importance of respecting the historical and legal status quo in Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif. His Majesty stressed the need to maintain calm and cease all acts of violence, in order to pave the way for a political horizon for the peace process, calling for an end to any measures that could undermine peace prospects" 

Netanyahu's assurance enables Abdullah to continue supporting the Saudi Solution - the only game in town currently providing a political horizon for the peace process. 

King Abdullah's concerns were not imagined - but soundly based. 

The Saudi Solution had not specifically allocated custodianship of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem to the newly-created entity - speaking only of "an appropriate arrangement for the holy places"

King Abdullah needed Netanyahu‘s assurance that Israel would support Jordan's Hashemite rulers retaining custodianship of the Islamic holy sites

This issue of custodianship was shelved again when the Saudi plan was subsequently revised in an unpublished document making major changes to the published original - speaking only of giving the holy places special status - not who would be custodian. 

The original and revised versions of the Saudi Solution had been documented prior to the Israeli elections on November 1, 2022. 

After Netanyahu's confirmation as Israel's Prime Minister - Israel's new National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, had visited the Temple Mount - the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry provocatively described his visit as:  

"the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and violation of its sanctity." 

King Abdullah needed Netanyahu‘s assurance that Israel would support Jordan's Hashemite rulers retaining custodianship of the Islamic holy sites - if Abdullah was to maintain his ongoing support for implementing the Saudi Solution. 

The Palace communique gave Abdullah an exit strategy:

"The King reaffirmed Jordan's steadfast position in support of the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with Israel in peace and security."

This was indeed King Abdullah's position prior to publication of the Saudi Solution which trashed the two-state solution - consigning it to the garbage bin of history unimplemented - after being proposed by the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002. 

Abdullah has not mentioned the two-state solution once since publication of the Saudi Solution. 

He is appearing to signal re-supporting the failed two-state solution - should Israel seek during the implementation of the Saudi Solution to renegotiate the current terms of custodianship on terms unacceptable to King Abdullah. 

The United Nations, the media and its analysts, and independent analysts have totally ignored the Saudi Solution's existence since its publication in the Saudi government-controlled Al Arabiya News on June 8, 2022. None has considered the Saudi Solution newsworthy enough to report on or analyze. It's time they did. 

Netanyahu's visit to King Abdullah indicates the Saudi Solution is being implemented on the way to hopefully becoming a reality. 

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

Under the radar negotiations on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

Israel and Saudi Arabia have reportedly begun US-brokered peace negotiations that will be conducted far away from the media and public gaze.  Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu made that perfectly clear in his 50 minute interview on Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya TV on 15 December:

“You know, I’m sort of a champion of a slight twist in what Woodrow Wilson said in the Versailles Peace Conference. He said he believed in open covenants, openly arrived at. I believe in open covenants, secretly arrived at or discreetly arrived at. There we will have to have discussions about all the questions that you asked today and see how we can advance this. If you try to sort it out in advance you get stuck. That’s what happens. In Israel, we say “climb the tree.” Everybody climbs on their own tree and says, “I’m here, and I’m not climbing down and no matter how many ladders you give me.” I’m stuck in my tree, the other guy is stuck in his tree, and we just shout at each other across tree trunks and we never get to a meeting of the minds or an actual meeting on the ground. I think we have to take a different position. All these things need to be discussed discreetly, responsibly and, within the confines of closed meetings, openly. And once we get an agreement, then we can come out. I don’t need the public fanfare, I don’t need it. You know, if you come to an agreement, it will be publicized. If you don’t come to an agreement, nothing happens. I think we can come to amazing agreements.”

One topic for discussion will assuredly involve the implementation of the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published in Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022. Its author – Ali Shihabi – is a confidant of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister – Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) and also a member of MBS’s advisory board on Neom – a US$500 billion megacity being built in north-western Saudi Arabia covering an area equal to the size of Israel.

Shihabi’s plan calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be called “The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”  Shihabi's plan is both revolutionary and ground breaking - the best plan yet presented to end the Jewish-Arab conflict. Shihabi’s plan has not been rejected by King Abdullah (Jordan), Mahmoud Abbas (PLO) Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas) or MBS in the seven months since its publication. Yet incredibly virtually all:

• the international media, 
• Op-Ed writers, 
• University professors heading up Middle East faculty departments 
• Well-endowed private think tanks, 
• foreign-funded Israeli NGO's, 
• investigative journalists and 
• the United Nations 

have ignored acknowledging even the existence of Shihabi's plan. Their credibility is in tatters – their opinions and decisions fatally flawed without factoring in Shihabi’s plan.

The UN is now seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice - when supporting the implementation of Shihabi’s Plan would have rendered that highly-divisive decision unnecessary. 

Trashing Shihabi’s plan was a UN option - but burying this game changing plan - an alternative to the failed two-state solution proposed by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, the 2003 Oslo Accords and Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016) - requires explanation and justification. 

Had this misguided group of bedfellows treated Shihabi’s Plan with the seriousness and analysis it deserved – they might have also discovered one other critically important document: A revised version of Shihabi’s 8 June 2022 plan. 

Burying Shihabi’s plan has ironically given Israel and Jordan the freedom to negotiate under the radar amendments to Shihabi’s plan - long before their US-brokered negotiations commenced. 

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.

David Singer——Bio and Archives

David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com

Bibi forced to move early on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine plan

 

Bibi Netanyahu's time for confirmation as Israel's next Prime Minister runs out on December 21st after six weeks of the tail wagging the dog - parties with few Knesset members using their small but strategic numbers to try to extract concessions from Netanyahu for their support - that Netanyahu has obviously been resisting. 

Faced with this looming reality - Netanyahu has been forced to move early on his election promise made to Israeli voters on October 22nd:

"I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close."

In an extraordinary 52 minute interview on Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya TV on 15 December - Netanyahu pointed out for the benefit of those Israeli political party leaders who are his main stumbling blocks to becoming Prime Minister - the opportunity Israel would miss to end the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict - if Netanyahu is not Israel's next Prime Minister. He warned them:

"The other parties are joining me. I'm not joining them"

Netanyahu –repeating his election promise - told Al Arabiya:

"I think the peace with Saudi Arabia will serve two purposes: It will be a quantum leap for an overall peace between Israel and the Arab world, it will change our region in ways that are unimaginable and I think it will facilitate, ultimately, a Palestinian-Israeli peace. I believe in that. I intend to pursue it."

Netanyahu continued: 

"The reason we've not had an Israeli-Palestinian peace is because the Palestinian… leadership for the last century has refused to do what is finally happening in the rest of the Arab world -- and that is to recognize that the State of Israel is here to stay."

A new solution to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace authored by Ali Shihabi - a close confidant of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister -Mohammed Bin Salman - was published by Al Arabiya news on June 8, 2022--but has amazingly received virtually no mention or scrutiny in the international media or at the United Nations in the six months since its release. 

The plan recognises:

"Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted  ..."

The plan calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with unrestricted citizenship being offered to the Arab populations of Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank and the refugee camps located in Syria and Lebanon.

Netanyahu - significantly –told Al Arabiya viewers:

"I think coming to a solution with the Palestinians will require out of the box thinking, will require new thinking."

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution is certainly the most creative plan ever proposed to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--its author declaring:

"The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world."

Netanyahu is offering his potential coalition partners a choice: Drop demands Bibi cannot accept and back him in as Prime Minister or miss this best opportunity ever to end the unresolved 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict. 

December 21st is Israel's Judgement Day. 

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.

Netanyahu gives nod to Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

 

Israel's Leader of the Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu has finally broken his silence - giving his nod of approval to adopting the Saudi-proposed Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (Saudi Solution) :

"I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close."

Peace with Saudi Arabia and ending the Arab-Israeli conflict will require Netanyahu to successfully  implement the Saudi Solution - published in June - that would see:

• Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) being merged into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - with its capital in Amman - not Jerusalem 
• Abandonment of the 74 years-old Palestinian Arab demand to return and live in Israel 
• Recognition of  Jewish sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for the first time in 3000 years
• No new Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan

Yesh Atid Party Leader - Yair Lapid,  Blue and White Party Leader - Benny Gantz - and Labor Party Leader - Merav Michaeli - have all rejected the Saudi Solution - aligning their respective parties policies with President Biden's to continue pursuing the failed two-state solution first dreamt up by the European Union in 1980 and endorsed by the United Nations in 2003. 

The leaders of all other Israeli political parties have yet to comment on the Saudi Solution.

Netanyahu indicated his thinking was clearly in sync with the Saudi Solution's game-changing proposals.

On the touchy question of Israeli sovereignty in part only of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)--Netanyahu said:

"The reality is that a third, which includes biblical sites, strategic sites, and Jewish suburbs of our major cities, they're going to stay in Israel no matter what. We'd like more—possibly everything—but that's not the point. The point is everybody recognized this part will stay, so why not recognize it the way Trump recognized Jerusalem as our capital? And it's been that way for 3,000 years since King David; so why not recognize this reality too?" 

On the sensitive issue of Jerusalem remaining solely the capital of Israel - Netanyahu declared:

"As long as [the Palestinians] cling to the unrealistic assumption that we're going to dismantle half of Jerusalem and dismantle these suburbs, you ain't gonna get peace. You're going to get nothing. You cannot build peace in the Middle East on fantasy. Any peace built on lies and fantasy will founder on the rocks of Middle Eastern realities. It's about time to recognize what is going to be. What is [currently] there, and what is going to be."

The Saudi Solution maintains the current reality of Jerusalem remaining the capital of Israel only. 

So do Hamas and the PLO - as their four-months self-imposed silence in failing to oppose or reject  the Saudi Solution testifies. 

The main remaining issue to be negotiated is security control over the newly merged entity – where Netanyahu told Ben Shapiro in an earlier interview:

"...West of the Jordan River ... Israel and Israel alone controls security. We control the airspace, we control the ground security, underground security in case they want to do tunnels... We're not going to commit suicide for a favourable op-ed in the New York Times"

If Netanyahu becomes Israel's next Prime Minister – the end of the 100 years old Arab-Israeli conflict and peace with Saudi Arabia could well be realised.

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.

Lapid rejects Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

 

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has finally emerged from the cocoon of silence that has enveloped all current 120 Knesset members - choosing to reject a solution emanating from Saudi Arabia on 8 June calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (Saudi Solution). 

Lapid has opted instead to continue his longstanding support for the United Nations 29 years-old failed solution calling for the creation of a new State of Palestine between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history (United Nations Solution)

Lapid's support was however conditional:

"We have only one condition: That a future Palestinian state will be a peaceful one. That it will not become another terror base from which to threaten the well-being, and the very existence of Israel" 

It is unclear whether Lapid had forgotten or had abandoned another condition which he had stipulated -when he told 26 European Union Foreign Ministers at the European Union Foreign Affairs Council on July 11, 2022 that:

"It is no secret that I support a two-state solution. Unfortunately, there is no current plan for this. However, there is one thing we all need to remember. If there is eventually a Palestinian State, it must be a peace-loving democracy".

With conditions such as these - the likelihood of such a Palestinian State ever emerging will be virtually impossible to achieve. 

Nevertheless Lapid has had the courage of his convictions to finally state the policy he will adopt  to try to end a conflict that has defied resolution for the last 100 years.

At least voters in the upcoming Israeli elections will know what to expect if Lapid becomes Israel's next Prime Minister on 1 November. 

The other 119 Knesset members - and those seeking to replace any of them who are retiring - continue to keep voters in the dark on what their policy will be in trying to achieve the long sought for peace to end the Jewish-Arab conflict. 

The emergence of the Saudi Solution offered these reticent politicians a real choice - yet not one of them has had the intestinal fortitude finally - if belatedly - displayed by Lapid. 

The Saudi Solution - in distinct contrast to the United Nations Solution - offers Israel the following concessions before negotiations are even commenced on implementing the proposal:

• Jerusalem will be the capitol of Israel only
• No new State will be created between Israel and Jordan 
• The right of return by Palestinian Arabs to Israel will be abandoned 
• Jewish sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will be recognised for the first time in 3000 years
• Saudi Peace proposals made in 1981 and 2002 that were unacceptable to Israel will be superseded.

The universal silence by Israeli politicians on the Saudi Solution since its publication almost four months ago is shameful. 

One cannot expect every Israeli politician to embrace the Saudi Solution. They should publicly state the reasons for their opposition. 

But is there not one Israeli politician - Jew or Arab - other than Lapid - prepared to express his own opinion  on conducting negotiations to determine if agreement can be reached on the Saudi Solutions' ground breaking proposals? 

In particular why have the leaders of seventeen of the eighteeen major Israeli political parties contesting the elections - Netanyahu, Gantz, Sa'ar, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir, Deri, Litzman, Gafni, Shehadeh, Odeh, Tibi, Michaeli, Galon, Abbas, Shaked, Liberman and Hendel - refused to comment on the Saudi Solution since its publication? 

Hopefully these leaders - like Lapid - will break their silence on the Saudi Solution well before November 1. 

Leaders lead from the front - not cower and huddle silently together behind the voters whose votes they seek.

Author's note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this articl--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.

UN must evaluate Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

 

The General Debate of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly to be held from 20 to 26 September will not be hearing the words “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine” mentioned even once by the Heads of State and Government meeting at the UN Headquarters for their annual talkfest to discuss world issues. 

All these high-powered speakers will continue to bury any discussion of the peace proposal emanating from Saudi Arabia and published in Al-Arabiya News on 8 June 2022 calling for:

• Jordan, Gaza, and part of the West Bank to be merged into one separate territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine 
• The capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine to be Amman – not Jerusalem
• The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine to grant Citizenship to all stateless Palestinian Arabs 
• Jewish sovereignty being established in part of the West Bank for the first time in 3000 years

This Saudi proposal offers a new two-State solution: Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine –with Israel sovereign in about 20% of former Palestine and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine sovereign in about the remaining 80%. 

Saudi Plan author – Ali Shihabi – was brutally frank in explaining why it was time to look at this possibly game-changing solution:

“We have seen from recent experience that state building is a virtually impossible task, particularly in a polarized environment so creating a “Palestinian State” from scratch is a fool's errand...  Yes, a false separate “Jordanian” identity has developed over the last decades from what is really a people with zero differences, ethnic or religious that have been one people since time immemorial..." 

The Annual Report of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People highlights the UN's continuing failure to progress its two-State solution:

“Throughout the reporting period, [2 September 2021 to 31 August 2022] the realization of the two-State solution, as per the relevant United Nations and the prevailing international consensus, failed to advance. The Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) did not resume, and the Middle East Quartet did not create opportunities for negotiations between Israel and the State of Palestine”

The Report misleadingly states:

“The stalled MEPP and the lack of new initiatives to benefit the Palestinian people's quest for self-determination have highlighted the need for enhanced global cooperation to reinvigorate negotiations and provide a political horizon leading to a just solution to the Question of Palestine and lasting peace”.

A new initiative and political horizon for a just solution to the Question of Palestine has emerged: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution. 

This latest initiative seriously challenges the two-State solution unsuccessfully pursued by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland during their respective tenures - and by the UN for the last 19 years: Creating a brand-new Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history 

Both Guterres and Wennesland have stubbornly refused to present this Saudi initiative to the Security Council for evaluation since its publication. Regrettably hubris has prevented them doing so. It is hard to admit that there might be an alternative solution to the one you have been claiming for years is the only solution.

Ending the 100 years-old conflict between Jews and Arabs - rather than perpetuating that conflict by continuing to pursue a decades-old failed solution – should be Guterres' and Wennesland's joint mantra. 

Guterres and Wennesland: Relent and recognise that the UN two-State solution is dead – that the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution to replace it needs to be evaluated by the Security Council. 

Doing so could change the course of history. 

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.

Biden & Blinken silent on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

In the Arab-Israel conflict where every word is dissected and analysed to see whether there could be any change of policy - the use of the words “a two state solution” instead of “the President’s two-state solution” could well signal President Biden’s abandonment of his own two-state solution – Israel and Palestine - in favour of a Saudi two-state solution – Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine. 

Such speculation has arisen following this State Department Media Note issued on 4 September:

“The Assistant Secretary will travel to Israel and the West Bank September 1-3 to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials to discuss a range of priorities, including the ... Administration’s continued support for a two-state solution.

Was the State Department referring to “the two-state solution” articulated by President Biden on 15 July?

“President Biden ... underscored his commitment to a two-state solution on the 1967 lines with land swaps mutually agreed by the Israelis and Palestinians. He also highlighted the importance of direct negotiations leading to an independent, sovereign, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, both enjoying secure and recognized borders, allowing the two peoples to live side-by-side in peace and security."

Or was the State Department referring to a different two-state solution  – Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine – emanating from Saudi Arabia on 8 June 2022 - calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one single territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine? 

The Saudi plan’s author – Ali Shihabi - is a confidante of Saudi Arabia’s next King – Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Shihabi’s Plan was published in Al Arabiya News – owned 60% by the Saudi Government. This latest Saudi plan supersedes the 1981 and 2002 Saudi Peace Plans.  

The rationale for creating the Saudi-proposed merged state as against the Biden-proposed brand new state was recently explained by Shihabi: 

“We have seen from recent experience that state building is a virtually impossible task, particularly in a polarized environment - so creating a “Palestinian State” from scratch is a fool’s errand. At the same time Jordan is a decently run country by regional standards and hence its government infrastructure can be used to incorporate 'Palestine' which will instantly have a globally recognized and respected government with all the basics like security, government bureaucracy etc.”

Shihabi’s two-state solution – if implemented – would consign Biden’s two-state solution – “a fool’s errand” says Shihabi - to the diplomatic graveyard. 

Significantly - Palestinian Authority President Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Hamas leaders have not voiced any objection to the Saudi proposal since its June publication. Rejection by any of them would have stopped the Saudi plan in its tracks. 

I sought State Department clarification on 6 September:

“I refer to the Peace Plan emanating from Saudi Arabia published in the Al Arabiya Times on 8 June 2022 proposing the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (Saudi Plan): https://english.alarabiya.net/in-translation/2022/06/08/The-Hashemite-Kingdom-of-Palestine 

Could you please advise in relation to Secretary of State Blinken: 

1. When he first became aware of the Saudi plan? 

2. Has he commented on the Saudi plan since its release on 8 June 2022? 

3. If so – when and where were such comments published? 

4. If he has made no comment – would he like to make any comment on the Saudi plan that I can publish verbatim and attribute to him in an article I am writing on the Saudi Plan? 

I would appreciate a reply within the next 72 hours."

The State Department has yet to reply.  

Biden and Blinken’s silence is baffling.

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.

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine: Lapid No Guts No Vision

 

Israel's Prime Minister and candidate for re-election following the November 1, 2022 elections -Yair Lapid - refuses to make any comment on the Saudi Peace Plan published on June 8, 2022 calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

It is unclear whether Lapid had any actual knowledge or appreciation of the Saudi Plan when--as Israel's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister - he told 26 European Union Foreign Ministers at the European Union Foreign Affairs Council on 11 July that:

"It is no secret that I support a two-state solution. Unfortunately, there is no current plan for this. However, there is one thing we all need to remember. If there is eventually a Palestinian state, it must be a peace-loving democracy".

The Saudi Plan clearly consigns the idea of any Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan to the diplomatic graveyard for burial by its sponsors - the United Nations and the European Union - after forty years of failed attempts to see its creation.  

The Saudi plan also promises the following outcomes:

• It would supersede two previous Saudi peace proposals in 1981 and 2002 calling for Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank
• Amman - not Jerusalem - will be the capital of The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
• The right of return to Israel is abandoned.
• Palestinians in the 'West Bank', Gaza and stateless refugees get full citizenship in the merged Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with all the elements of sovereignty applicable to those Territories that belonging to a fully recognized state in the UN entail.

It beggars belief that not 1 of the 120 members of Israel's current Parliament has uttered one word that I can find anywhere supporting or rejecting the Saudi Plan.

The Saudi Plan's author - Ali Shihabi - a confidant of Saudi Arabia's next King - Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - expressed his own feelings to me at this veil of silence that had descended over every one of Israel's politicians:

"Israel is the key factor. It holds most of the cards and its military, economic and political success since 1948 has made its leaders arrogant and contemptuous of the Arabs generally since the Israelis have imposed their terms on the region despite all Arab efforts and noise made in decades past. This arrogance is clouding Israeli judgement and blinding them to the opportunity that presents itself today for them to drive a sustainable peace process. They can get a lot of what they want but have to give a bit to get a sustainable solution that will integrate them into the region permanently, but this will require an Israeli De Gaulle with guts and vision, and I don't see one on the horizon unfortunately"

Confident I could meet Shihabi's challenge - I asked Lapid, Defence Minister Gantz and Opposition Leader Netanyahu the following questions:

• When he first became aware of the Saudi plan?
• Has he commented on the Saudi plan since its release on 8 June 2022?
• If so--when and where were such comments published?
• If he has made no comment - would he like to make any comment on the Saudi plan that I can publish verbatim and attribute to him?
• Is he prepared to promise Israeli voters that he will use his best endeavours to implement the Saudi plan if he becomes Israel's next Prime Minister?

Lapid - like Gantz – failed to respond. 

Netanyahu wants an assurance of complete Israeli security control west of the Jordan River - not presently promised in Shihabi's plan. 

Over to you for your considered response Mr. Shihabi 

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.

Wennesland in La-La Land ignoring Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

It is amazing to think that one of the highest ranking United Nations officials dealing with the Palestine question - Tor Wennesland - could address the Security Council on the current situation without telling that august body of a significant new proposal that could finally end this 100-years old unresolved Jewish-Arab conflict.  

That proposal - emanating from Saudi Arabia - calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one single territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

Its author Ali Shihabi is a confidant and staunch defender of Saudi Arabia's next King - Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Shihabi is a member of the Advisory Board of  NEOM - Bin Salman's proposed US$500 billion megacity of the future to be built from the ground up in Northern Saudi Arabia strategically-located on an area of land equal to the size of Israel.

Shihabi's solution was published in Al Arabiya News - reportedly 60% majority owned by the Saudi Government.  

According to MEMRI - the political editor of the Jordanian news outlet jo24.net has written: 

"This article must not be seen as a mere opinion piece published by media, since that happens [only] in democratic countries. In contrast, on the [Saudi] Al-Arabiya channel, not one letter is published without a minute examination, and therefore the article necessarily expresses Al-Arabiya's [position]"

Wennesland:

• Is the most credentialed and best informed official in the UN on developments affecting the peace process in former Palestine.
• Possesses the longest title at the UN: United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet
• Is the focal point on the ground for UN support in all political and diplomatic efforts related to the peace process
• Heads The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) that employs 65 people - established in June 1994 following the signing of the Oslo Accords. 

Yet Wennesland addressed the Security Council on June 27, 2022 and made not one reference to the Saudi Plan which Shihabi had released just 19 days earlier. 

It seems inconceivable that Wennesland was then unaware of this Saudi plan. 

Why didn't he inform the Security Council of its existence and direct his Deputy Special Coordinator Lynn Hastings to do so one month later?  

Wennesland simply continued to trot out the old shibboleths - part of the UN's patter since 1994:

"It is crucial that all parties take immediate steps to lower tensions and reverse negative trends that undermine prospects for a peaceful two-State resolution of the conflict, with a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State."

"Settlements constitute a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and international law. They undermine the prospect of achieving a two-State solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State."

Why not add:

"I bring to your attention a new two-state solution emanating from Saudi Arabia on 8 June that should be considered by the Security Council to replace the two-state solution unsuccessfully pursued by the Security Council for the last 29 years." 

The Saudi plan would be finalised in direct negotiations between Israel and Jordan that would delineate the international border between The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine and Israel and resolve Israel's security concerns. 

Suffering by both Jews and Arabs meticulously recorded at length by Wennesland in his monthly reports and escalating right now would end - as would the conflict and any further need for UNSCO.  

Wennesland is in la-la land and needs to return to the real world.  

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

UN will rue burying debate on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

The United Nations Security Council has lost any authority to broker an end to the Jewish-Arab conflict - after its July 26th Quarterly Open Debate: "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question" proceeded for 5 hours without any speaker making reference to a new solution emanating from Saudi Arabia to resolve the 100 years-old conflict.  

That Saudi solution – the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one separate territorial entity to be called "The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine"- had been published on 8 June in Al Arabiya News.

The article was written by Ali Shihabi – a confidante of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – Saudi Arabia's next King and driving force behind NEOM – a $500 billion megacity of the future to be erected in Saudi Arabia on an expanse of land the size of Israel. 

The Security Council's silence in commenting on this Saudi solution ever since its publication has been arrogant and breathtaking. 

This solution offers an alternative to the solution unsuccessfully pressed by the UN for the last 29 years: The creation of a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan. 

The Security Council had an obligation to notify UN member States of the emergence of this new solution since its last Quarterly Debate and encourage the members to consider its pros and cons as a replacement for the UN plan that was clearly dead in the water. 

The Security Council and its vast bureaucracy could certainly not claim ignorance of this Saudi proposal. 

I myself had written to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres representative Stephane Dujarric on June 30th enclosing a copy of the Al Arabiya article - inviting the Secretary-General to comment on the solution for inclusion in an article I was writing. No reply was received - so my article was published on July 4

A reminder letter sent to Dujarric on July 19 for a comment to use in future articles met the same fate.  

The roll call of those speaking at the Security Council debate without mentioning the Saudi solution is mind-boggling:

• Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt): Lynn Hastings 
• The observer for the State of Palestine 
• Representatives of Israel, United States, China, Algeria Cuba, Malaysia, South Africa, Lebanon, Japan, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Russian Federation, Albania ,Ghana, Gabon, Kenya, India, Norway, Mexico, Brazil, Iran, Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Türkiye, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Azerbaijan (speaking for the Non-Aligned Movement), Argentina, Republic of Korea.
• A representative of the European Union, in its capacity as observer 
• The Permanent Observers for the Holy See, the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
• The Vice Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

Representatives of the State of Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia – the parties most affected by the proposed Saudi solution - can be excused for not discussing the Saudi Plan - as they had been engaging in secret back-channel negotiations almost from the day the Saudi Plan was made public.  

By the time this Security Council debate was held, significant agreement had already been reached on acceptable starting points for those negotiations to continue. 

This debate marks one of the lowest points in United Nations history – one when it abdicated its obligation to prevent conflict and acted instead to ensure its perpetuation.

The Security Council's attempt to bury the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution rather than encourage its serious consideration - will fail. 

The Security Council has sown the seeds for its own demise.

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.

UN, EU, Jordan & USA keep mum on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) Jordan and America (USA) continue to keep mum by refusing to comment on the Saudi Arabian proposal to unify Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be named "The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine"  

The detailed Saudi proposal was set out in an article published on 8 June written by Ali Shihabi – a confidante of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - designated to be Saudi Arabia's next King.

The Saudi plan directly challenges UN, EU, Jordan and US positions argued for decades that the only solution to ending the conflict between Arabs and Jews is the creation for the first time in history of a 23rd Arab State between Israel and Jordan.  

Despite their unrelenting and determined efforts to bring this solution to fruition since its adoption by the EU at the Venice Summit on 13 June 1980 – that goal has proved incapable of being achieved. 

On 31 July 1988 Jordan's King Hussein hopped on the EU bandwagon and:

• Terminated Jordanian citizenship enjoyed by all West Bank Arab residents for the previous 38 years. 
• Renounced all Jordanian claims to the West Bank annexed by Jordan between 1950 and 1967

• Dissolved the Jordanian parliament (half of whose members were West Bank representatives), 
• Ceased salary payments to 21,000 West Bank civil servants, and 
• Ordered that West Bank Palestinian passports be converted to two-year travel documents. 

Jordan left the fate of the West Bank and its abandoned Jordanian-citizen population in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 

The PLO subsequently rejected offers of a separate state proposed by the: 

• 1993 Oslo Accords
• 2003 Bush Roadmap 
• 2020 Trump Plan and 
• Israel in July 2000, September 2008 and June 2009

The EU and Jordan push for this separate-state solution between Israel and Jordan was made as recently as 2 June 2022:

"[The EU and Jordan] reiterated that the only path to a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the two-state solution that ends occupation and leads to the establishment, of an independent contiguous, sovereign and viable Palestinian State, on the lines of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with the State of Israel in peace, in accordance with international law and UN Security Council resolutions"

Their failure to address the Saudi initiative - made 6 days later - could see the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution being renamed the State of Palestine solution – with the Hashemites possibly losing their custodianship of the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem. 

President Biden has followed the EU and Jordan - Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills telling the UN Security Council on 27 June 2022 – without mentioning the Saudi proposal: 

"The current U.S. administration continues to affirm its strong support for a two-state solution, which remains the best way to ensure Israel's future as a democratic and Jewish state alongside a sovereign, viable Palestinian state." 

The UN and its agencies repeat this failed mantra ad nauseum.

Not one of these four major players has yet uttered one word specifically addressing Shihabi's plan to unify Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank – which Shihabi justifies on one indisputable fact: 

"Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines." 

No groups were defined and identified as:

• "Jordanians": Before 1950.
• "Palestinians": Until 1964.

Two States – Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - not three states – is the Saudi key that can finally bring peace to the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia tells Biden & UN: No State between Israel & Jordan

 

Saudi Arabia has sent US President Joe Biden and the United Nations (UN) a clear message to abandon the idea of creating a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan in an article published in Al-Arabiya News on 8 June headlined: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine  

Its author - Ali Shihabi - is not your ordinary run-of-the mill journalist. He supports and has the ear of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) - the controversial next successor to the Saudi throne.

MBS is the driving force behind NEOM--a brand new US$500 billion megacity to be built on 26500km² in northern Saudi Arabia - an area larger than Israel - powered by 100% renewable energy. The project includes a bridge spanning the Red Sea - connecting NEOM to Africa. NEOM will be close to the borders of Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Shihabi has been a member of NEOM’s Advisory Board since 2020. 

MBS has not sought to publically distance himself from Shihabi’s article. 

Shihabi lays the groundwork for his proposal:

"The basically insurmountable power imbalance between the Arabs and Israelis, let alone between the Palestinians and Israelis, argues for a radical rethinking of the approach to solving the Palestine problem. Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, by the region around it"

Shihabi then proposes his solution:

"The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world. Labor in this day and age is mobile and having citizenship in a country that facilitates such mobility is critical to human development. The most logical vehicle for this redefinition and hence for the solution to the Palestine problem is the kingdom of Jordan. Over the last seventy-five years, Jordan has developed into a relatively well-governed state, although the impact of regional political turmoil has caused it to fail economically and become heavily reliant on foreign aid for its survival. It is this Jordanian governance infrastructure that needs to be captured and put to productive use in integrating the millions of Palestinians and Jordanians into a modern, reasonably well-functioning state that would, in an era of real peace and economic integration with Jordan’s neighbors, have a much higher chance of growth and prosperity. This proposed enlarged kingdom would include present-day Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank (areas populated by Palestinians attached in a contiguous manner and physically connected to Jordan, i.e., not broken up into islands)."

Shihabi dismisses Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Jordan claims to be separate entities:

"Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines." 

Significantly Shihabi’s proposal does not call for Saudi Arabia to replace Jordan as Custodian of the Islamic Holy Sites in Jerusalem - a fear long-held by Jordan. This Saudi concession should help embolden Jordan to begin negotiations with Israel on this Saudi Arabian initiative - that could see:

• The 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty extended to 100% of the territory of former Palestine - instead of the 95% currently covered
• The two-state solution contemplated by article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the 1945 UN Charter finally brought to fruition

Endorsement of this Saudi initiative by Biden and the UN will greatly advance the prospect of finally ending the 100 years-old unresolved Jewish-Arab conflict.

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.

Jordan-PLO-Egypt negotiations with Israel could be key to peace

 

The Negev Summit (Summit) taking place on 27 and 28 March - hosted by Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid– could be the catalyst for promoting the beginning of direct negotiations - without preconditions - between Israel, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Egypt - on the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza.

Summit attendees will include:

• US Secretary for State Antony Blinken
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, 
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco Nasser Bourita, and 
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt Sameh Shoukry.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safdi will be meeting PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah during the Summit. However - according to Israel’s Channel N12 - al-Safdi may join the Summit before the event is concluded. 

On March 18 Principal Deputy Spokesperson in the US State Department--Jalina Porter--had announced Blinken’s visit to the Middle East without mentioning the Summit.   

Porter articulated the Biden Administration’s views on creating a second Palestinian Arab State in former Palestine--in addition to Jordan:

... "the Biden-Harris administration believes that there should be a viable and democratic Palestinian state living in peace alongside a Jewish and democratic state. We believe that a negotiated two-state solution is the best way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the administration has also made clear on numerous occasions that Israelis and Palestinians alike equally deserve to live in security, prosperity, and freedom."

Porter’s choice of the term "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" was unfortunate. 

A more appropriate term would have been the "Arab-Jewish conflict" which has been raging unresolved in former Palestine for more than 100 years - long before the terms "Israelis" and "Palestinians" were created in 1948 and 1964 respectively. 

In this long-running conflict - every word counts. 

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181- passed in 1947 - had called for Western Palestine - today called Israel, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza - to be partitioned into one Arab State and one Jewish State.  This area comprised 22% of the territory in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.  Jerusalem was to become a separate entity to be governed by a special international regime.  

The remaining 78% of former Palestine - Transjordan - today called Jordan - had already achieved its independence in 1946. This area was exclusively populated by Arabs - having been excluded from Jewish settlement in 1922 by article 25 of the Mandate for Palestine. 

The Jews accepted Resolution 181 - but it was rejected by the Arabs - resulting in the invasion of Western Palestine by the armies of six Arab States - Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 

Transjordan conquered East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and unified those areas with Transjordan to form a new territorial entity - renamed Jordan in 1950 - until these areas were lost to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.  

Egypt conquered Gaza and administered it between 1948 and 1967.  

Summit participant - Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry - held talks in Cairo three weeks ago  with Ziad Abu Amr — the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister and PLO Executive Committee Member — and Palestinian Minister of Social Development Ahmad Majdalani. 

Shoukry then reportedly expressed the importance of continuing contact with various regional and international parties concerned in order to create the appropriate atmosphere for reviving the negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides at the earliest opportunity. 

The Summit could well be creating that appropriate atmosphere which eventually sees Jordan-PLO-Egypt negotiations with Israel to finally complete the solution first contemplated in 1922 - the division of former Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

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.