Xi joins Biden as a Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine-denier

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has joined USA President Biden in disqualifying both their countries from playing any mediating role in ending more than 100 years of conflict between Arabs and Jews over the territory once called Palestine.

Both Biden and Xi refuse to jettison the failed - Saudi Arabian-inspired - two-state solution unsuccessfully pursued by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative:

1. Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
2. Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.
3. The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital

Biden made his position clear on December 29, 2022:

“And as we have throughout my Administration, the United States will continue to support the two state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values.”

Xi has now joined Biden--according to Chinese state media – stating on June 14, 2023:

“The fundamental solution to the Palestinian issue lies in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,”

Biden and XI have clearly rejected an alternative solution – The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) – which emanated from Saudi Arabia on 8 June 2022.

HKOPS (as subsequently amended) calls for Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank to be merged into one territorial entity called “The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”--to be ruled by the Hashemites--with its capital in Amman – not Jerusalem--which will be recognized as Israel’s capital only.

Custodianship of the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem will remain vested in the Hashemites as currently exists.

Biden and Xi’s support for the failed Arab Peace Initiative--and not HKOPS--will encourage fellow HKOPS-deniers--the United Nations and the European Union--to continue pushing a solution whose use by date has long expired.

HKOPS author--Ali Shihabi--is a confidant of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) and member of the Board advising MBS on building the US$500 billion mega-city Neom.

MBS has not rejected HKOPS since its publication – even though its successful implementation will shred the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

MBS wants the Jewish-Arab conflict ended – as he transforms Saudi Arabia under his Vision 2030 to become an integral driver of international trade connecting three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe

This requires a new solution to replace the failed Arab Peace Initiative – which HKOPS delivers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his position clear on the Arab Peace Initiative and Vision 2030 in Al Arabiya News on 15 December 2022:

“Look, the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 was an indication that there is a willingness, in those days, to think about how to get out of the straitjacket and to get to a comprehensive peace. I think things have changed, things have moved. But the need to have this kind of new thinking is important. And again, if we stick to the old grooves, we’ll be stuck in the old groove. If we think about new ways, then I think the sky’s the limit.”

Current Secret MBS-Netanyahu negotiations could see this decades-old straitjacket cast aside – averting a major humanitarian crisis threatening to envelop the West Bank and Gaza.

HKOPS-deniers – Biden, Xi, UN and EU - should hang their collective heads in shame.

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.

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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

China Can Exploit United Nations Double Standards On Palestine

[Published 14 July 2016]


International support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) - despite its rejection of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter – could be exploited by China to blunt international action following an unfavourable ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration against China in The Hague.

Having boycotted those proceedings - Chinese President Xi Jinping then immediately dismissed the decision – which denied China had any legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea:

"China will never accept any claim or action based on those awards”

His rejection was as peremptory as that of the PLO – which declared in Article 18 of its original 1964 Charter:

“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate system and all that has been based upon them are considered fraud.”

This position was revised when the Charter was redrafted in 1968 – article 20 declaring:

“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.”

These provisions have been a major contributing factor in preventing a resolution of the Jewish-Arab conflict for the last 52 years.

The international community has not punished the PLO for its unilateral demolition of these international-law building blocks but to the contrary has granted the PLO diplomatic recognition whilst also welcoming the PLO into the United Nations.

Should China be demonised because it also chooses to ignore a determination in international law that it regards as inimical to its national interest?

Does size matter? Can one forgive small players who wilfully shred international law but demand big players conform to legal decisions not to their liking?

The international community has some serious soul-searching to do.

Vietnam may now be ruing its welcoming embrace of the PLO by:

•Establishing ties with the PLO in 1968
•Allowing the PLO to open its resident Representative Office in Vietnam in 1976
•Elevating the PLO's resident Representative Office to the status of Embassy in 1982

Clearly concerned by China’s response to The Hague decision – Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh has declared:

"Vietnam strongly supports the resolution of the disputes ... by peaceful means, including diplomatic and legal processes and refraining from the use or threats to use force, in accordance with international law,"

That response is what one would normally expect – but when you have not demanded the same of the PLO for the last 48 years then such statement amounts to an indefensible double standard.

Other countries vitally affected by the South China Sea ruling include the Philippines – the plaintiff in The Hague proceedings - Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. They may find their long-standing ties with the PLO similarly embarrassing as they confront an angry China.

China on the other hand can argue that rejecting the South China Sea judgement is consistent with China’s recognition of the law-trashing PLO in 1988 – since International law means nothing to China and the PLO.

The Hague ruling is regarded as legally binding – but there is apparently no mechanism to enforce it.

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions programs against China will have little effect.

Rejecting China’s claim to any historic rights in the South China Sea stands in stark contrast to the acceptance of Jewish historic rights to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) – recognised by the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter – but erroneously claimed by the UN Security Council to be in violation of international law.

Double standards in the international community have a horrible way of coming back to bite those indulging in such dangerous games.