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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New York Times remains silent on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The New York Times (NYT) continues its year-long failure to report on or analyze the 2022 Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution to replace the failed two-state solution proposed by:

• The 2002 Saudi-inspired Arab Peace Initiative and
• The 2016 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

In her latest article: Spiraling Violence in the Occupied West Bank Signals a Loss of Control--NYT Reporter Isabel Kershner writes:

The Palestinian Authority, the interim body formed in the mid-1990s as part of the Oslo peace process, is supposed to exercise limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, with security forces numbering about 60,000 members. But it is absent from the hotbeds of Palestinian militancy in the northern part of the territory such as Jenin and Nablus and appears, experts say, to have all but abdicated responsibility.

“It’s a reversal and a collapse,” said Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security. Instead of less engagement, he said, “there is total involvement between Israel and the small Palestinian factions, and the Palestinian Authority is outside of the game, on the margins, or not really there at all.”

“We are back to square one,” he added. “There is no Oslo. There is nothing.”

Incensed by Kershner’s acceptance of al-Qaq’s statement as fact - I sent NYT the following comment - which remains unpublished:

“You quote Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security as stating: “We are back to square one. There is no Oslo. There is nothing.”

Hasn't Mr al-Qaq - and you also Isabel - heard of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published in the Saudi government-controlled Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022 - which calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be ruled by the Hashemites - with its capital being in Amman - not Jerusalem?

How come the NYT has not published one word about this plan since its publication 12 months ago - whose implementation would replace the terminally dead two-state solution that has failed to achieve any result since its publication in 2002--made public at that time in the NYT by Thomas Friedman--who also has not written one word about this 2022 Saudi solution?

Endorse this latest Saudi solution or trash it if you will. But don't ignore its existence as a possible solution to end the looming humanitarian crisis spiralling out of control in the West Bank that you describe in this article.”

NYT Opinion Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on May 25, 2021:

“I don’t expect Biden to summon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Camp David. As long as both are in power, no serious compromise is possible. But it is vital that Biden urgently take steps to re-energize the possibility of a two-state solution and give it at least some concrete diplomatic manifestation on the ground.

Because without that horizon--without any viable hope of separating Israelis and Palestinians into two states for two peoples--the only outcome left will be one state in which the Israeli majority dominates and Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank will be systematically deprived of equal rights”

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution surfaces in Saudi Arabia in June 2022 trashing the two-state solution proposed by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, the UN--yet the NYT still has not told its readers about this game-changing plan.

Not newsworthy enough?

Whilst Biden tries to re-energize the two-state solution--his White House lunching-buddy Friedman is warning it is:

“...in hospice. Only a miracle cure could save it now“

Meanwhile NYT fiddles as the West Bank burns....

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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Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine on rollercoaster ride to reality

 

The 2022 Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) continues its rollercoaster ride from dream to reality – in spite of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) refusing to acknowledge that such a solution even exists.

These four organizations amazingly continue to call for the creation of the two-state solution: a Palestinian Arab state between Jordan and Israel for the first time in recorded history.

New York Times columnist - Thomas Friedman – sums up the inevitability of the two-state solution’s demise:

“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.”

HKOPS game-changing initiative calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be governed by Jordan’s current Hashemite rulers – with its capital being located in Amman – not Jerusalem.

HKOPS will recreate - in a to-be-negotiated reduced area - the territorial entity existing between 1950 and 1967 – following Transjordan and Judea and Samaria being unified - and renamed Jordan - after the expulsion in 1948 of every Jew living in Judea and Samaria and the December 1948 Jericho Congress. 

All Arab residents of the newly-merged entity acquired Jordanian citizenship.

HKOPS:

• Trashes 21 years of Saudi Arabian and Arab League policy unsuccessfully pursuing the two-state solution
• Shreds the European Union two-state solution pushed since the 1980 Venice Declaration
• Negates the UN two-state solution contained in Security Council Resolution 2334 dated 23 December 2016.
• Recognizes Jerusalem as the sole undivided capital of Israel
• Allocates Jewish sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for the first time in 3500 years.
• Grants citizenship in the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine to all Palestinian Arab refugees no matter where they currently live.

Recent meetings of the Arab League and the Executive Committee of the OIC have confirmed their continued support for the terminal two-state solution.

German diplomat Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff – the European Union’s representative in Judea, Samaria and Gaza defiantly declared: 

“There is no such thing as Area B and C, it’s all Palestine.”

The UN continues its eleven months’ silence on considering HKOPS as an alternative solution to replace its own failed 2016 two-state solution – perpetuating the Arab-Jewish conflict rather than trying to end it.

Yet the following news report on 22 May shows how out of touch these four organisations are:

“Israel and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in negotiations for a potential normalization agreement under Bahraini mediation for the last day, Channel 12 News correspondent Sapir Lipkin reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen are involved in the telephone negotiations. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Manama in Bahrain and is holding the talks from there, mediated by the Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani.

Bahrain was chosen as a mediator for the negotiations at the request of the Saudis. A source involved in the talks told Channel 12 News that "the negotiations are very complex" and are being conducted under pressure exerted by the Biden Administration.”

RIP: two-state solution.

Welcome: Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution whose successful implementation could end 100 years of conflict between Arabs and Jews.

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

LinkedIn blots out comments on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

LinkedIn operating systems have seemingly enabled 10 of my published comments to be erased during a discussion with a Geopolitical Risk Analyst requesting his assessment of the threat to world peace posed by the continuing failure of the United Nations (UN) to acknowledge the existence of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on June 8. 2022.

Hopefully LinkedIn can explain how this could happen without first obtaining my consent.

Many letters written by me to UN Secretary-General Guterres in the last 8 months seeking to know why a complete blanket of silence has descended over the UN following publication of the Saudi-based Plan remain unacknowledged and unanswered.

The UN needs to urgently consider the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution as an alternative to the failed two-state solution first proposed in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - which celebrated New York Times political analyst Thomas Friedman has described as being “in hospice”.

This LinkedIn incident occurred on the site of a private special interest group comprising 125000+ members - called the International Relations (IR) and Affairs Group [IRAG]

Operating worldwide since 2009 - the objectives of the Group are highly commendable:

“At the International Relations and Affairs Group we research foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). We focus on geopolitical analysis, globalization, international policy issues and apply qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Our focus is analyzing, as well as formulating solutions to issues with foreign policy, cultural interaction, crisis and others. We also work to globally network members and collaborate for consulting.”

I applied to join the group and was accepted as a member on January 10, 2023.

I had been a member of another LinkedIn special interest group - International Relations Professional Discussions - with 24748 members - until the Administrator booted me from it on September 21, 2022 after I posted this final plea to retain my membership:

“The KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] has not voiced one word of disapproval since [author] Shihabi’s plan [The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine] was released three months ago. Why - when one word would have consigned Shihabi’s plan to the diplomatic shredder.

The publication of Shihabi’s plan in Al-Arabiya news - 60% owned by the Saudi Government could have easily been refused - but was not. Why?

Jordan, the PLO and Hamas have not expressly rejected Shihabi’s Plan. Why?

Are you really going to prevent any discussion on the UN possibly replacing its failed 19 year solution to ending the Arab-Jewish conflict with Shihabi’s Plan?

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the Confederation Plan of Yossi Beilin and Hiba Husseini as a "useful contribution to try and achieve a lasting solution to the conflict"

Why does Guterres not accord Shihabi's plan the same recognition?

I am not on my own in questioning the UN continuing to push its failed 19 years-old policy.

Please read the article in Al Jazeera--"It is time Israel, the West admit the two-state solution is dead" https://www.aljazeera.com/opin...

I hope you rethink your position before you decide to kick me out."

Given this background - I was happy when a Geopolitical Risk Analyst member in IRAG chose to engage with me - but shocked 21 published comments exchanged between us could seamlessly disappear into thin air.

I have now asked the other 125000+ members:

Would any members of this group like to read the Saudi plan and publish their own analysis of it? The Plan can be read here: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

Successful implementation of this Saudi-based proposal - endorsed by the UN - can end a conflict that has lasted 100 years.

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

EU fuels Jew-hatred that Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can end

 

The European Union’s institutionalized Jew-hatred was on full show when High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 2019 - Josep Borrell - took the opportunity to castigate the Jewish State and one of its Ministers during a press conference.

Borrell’s outburst came when asked the following question:

Q. "I would like to ask your reaction of the Israeli Finance Minister [Bezalel] Smotrich who said yesterday in the speech in Paris - and I quote him -: “There is no such thing as the Palestinian nation, there is no Palestinian history, there is no Palestinian language.” I would like to ask your comments on this.”

Borrell lashed out against Smotrich and Israel:

"The comments of Minister Smotrich go, once again, in the opposite direction and certainly cannot be tolerated. I call on the Israeli government to disavow those comments and to start working together with all parties to defuse tensions. It is not the first time that I have to express our concerns regarding the spiralling violence on the ground and we - the European Union - we have constantly advocated for measure of de-escalation, not inflammatory. The latest meetings in Aqaba, and in Sharm El Sheik go in the good direction, but I have to deplore this unacceptable comment by Minister Smotrich. It is wrong it is disrespectful; it is dangerous; it is counterproductive to say this kind of things in a situation which is already very tense.

So, we will continue on our longstanding commitment to the two-state solution with an independent and sovereign state of Palestine living side by side with Israel in peace and security.

I am sorry if some don’t like to listen to this kind of things, but this is the position of the European Union. It is not the personal position of the High Representative. It is the European Union position. ..."

Not tolerate Smotrich’s comments? Calling on the Israeli government to disavow Smotrich’s comments? Borrell’s arrogance and ignorance was appalling.

Smotrich was calling out the Palestinians false narrative claiming to be an ancient people - adopted unquestioningly by Borrell despite the following facts:

• Arabs living in Palestine in 1922 were not recognized by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine as a separate people - only comprising part of the “existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”
• The 1947 UN Partition Resolution called for creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State - not a Palestinian State
• The “Palestinians” were identified for the first time in history in 1964 in the founding Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation:

“The Palestinians are those Arab citizens who were living normally in Palestine up to 1947, whether they remained or were expelled. Every child who was born to a Palestinian parent after this date whether in Palestine or outside is a Palestinian. 

• Additionally that Charter expressly provided:

“This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.”

The EU’s continuing call for a separate independent and sovereign state for the Palestinians - in addition to Jordan - ignores the existence of the alternative Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution proposed in 2022 - that states:

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

Successful implementation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution will end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict. Borrell’s anti-Jewish diatribe ensures the continuation of that conflict - not its resolution.

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: Biden’s New Horizon for Peace?

The Aqaba Joint Communique issued by the US Department of State suggests that President Biden could be jettisoning his support for UN Security Council Resolution 2334 calling for the creation of a sovereign independent Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan (two-State Solution).

Resolution 2334 was born in sin on December 23, 2016 when the Obama/Biden administration failed to veto its adoption as they were packing up and vacating the White House following their electoral defeat at the hands of Donald Trump.

The UN Security Council has totally failed to advance its two-State Solution in the last six years - as well-respected analyst Thomas Friedman - writing in the New York Times - makes clear:

"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."

US Secretary of State Blinken was still flogging this dead horse on 18 February - reiterating to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu America’s support for:

“a negotiated two-state solution and opposition to policies that endangered its viability.”

Blinken was closely followed on 20 February by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process - Tor Wennesland - pathetically repeating his monthly mantra to the Security Council:

“As we continue to work with the parties and with regional and international partners to calm tensions, we must identify and pursue every opportunity to advance our long-term goal: an end to the occupation and the establishment of two States, living side-by-side in peace and security, on the basis of the 1967 lines, in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements.”

Biden’s position seemingly changed in the next seven days.

The Aqaba Joint Communique issued on February 26, 2023 following the meeting of senior officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the US, Jordan and Egypt significantly omitted any reference to the two-State Solution--stating instead:

“The participants stressed the importance of the Aqaba meeting, the first of its kind in years. They agreed to continue meeting under this formula, maintain positive momentum and expand this agreement towards wider political process leading to a just and lasting peace...

..They also thanked the United States for its important role in efforts to reach understandings that led to this agreement today, emphasizing its indispensable role in efforts to prevent deterioration and find horizons for peace.”

Two senior officials present in Aqaba - Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh - had been engaged in secret back-channel negotiations for the previous two months.

“Wider political process leading to a just and lasting peace” suggests they had already buried the UN two-State Solution.

Emphasizing America’s “indispensable role in efforts to prevent deterioration and find horizons for peace” suggests Biden had finally put aside his personal loathing for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and is looking at the only other solution presently on the horizon for ending the deteriorating political and security situation in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza: The Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on June 8, 2022.

Meantime Biden’s lunchtime-confidant and disappointed-Saudi Whisperer Friedman sits weeping in the hospice - refusing to write one word about the Saudi plan in the ten months since its publication.

Another White House lunch with Friedman could prove to be historic...

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

Security Council should adopt Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The United Nations Security Council needs to urgently consider adopting  the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution - following the warning delivered on December 19th by Tor Wennesland – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process. 

Addressing the Security Council Wennesland advised:

“Clashes, protests, attacks, Israeli security operations, including in Area A, and settler-related violence have continued. In 2022 to date, over one hundred and fifty Palestinians and more than twenty Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and Israel, the highest numbers of fatalities in years”

Wennesland was concerned that  Security Council Resolution 2334 passed on December 23, 2016 had failed to achieve its objective six years later: the creation of an independent Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan (two-State solution).

 Wennesland unwisely chose to blame Israel:

“Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remains deeply concerning. Settlements constitute a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and international law. They undermine the prospects of achieving a two-State solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State.”

He reminded the Security Council:

"As I told the Council in my briefing last month, seeking to freeze this conflict or manage it in perpetuity are not viable options. There is no substitute for a legitimate political process that will resolve the core issues driving the conflict."

Wennesland was correct but his proposed recommendation for “a legitimate political process” fell far short of what is required:

“In line with the recommendations that I made to this Council in November, I urge the parties, along with regional States and the broader international community to take concrete steps that will change the negative trajectory on the ground and have an immediate impact on Palestinian and Israeli lives, while, at the same time, ensuring these steps are anchored in a political framework that moves the parties forward towards the establishment of two States.”

Clinging to the failed two-State solution 6 years after its endorsement by Security Council Resolution 2334 and 20 years after first being proposed by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative – is a futile exercise.  

Wennesland’s recommendation will only see the conflict being indefinitely perpetuated – not ended.  

The Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on June 8, 2022 (Saudi Solution) has amazingly never been mentioned or discussed in the Security Council. 

It will dramatically  “change the negative trajectory on the ground “:

• It challenges the Security Council’s pointless pursuit of the two-State  solution by 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 having its capital in Amman and being ruled by Jordan’s current Hashemite ruler – King Abdullah
• The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and 2003 Oslo Accords are superseded.
• Arab populations living in Gaza, the West Bank and the refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon will become citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.
• Sovereignty in the West Bank will be divided between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
• Its author – Ali Shihabi – is a confidant of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister – Mohammed Bin Salman.
• Publication of the plan in the Saudi Government–controlled Al-Arabiya News overrules current Saudi policy - strongly suggesting Mohammed Bin Salman’s approval was first obtained.
• King Abdullah (Jordan), Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian Authority), Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas) Mohammed Bin Salman (Saudi Arabia) and Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel) have not expressly rejected the solution in the six months since its publication.
• Its successful implementation can end the 100 years-old Arab -Jewish conflict.

Adopting the Saudi Solution to replace the failed two-State solution is needed to arrest this worsening humanitarian nightmare. 

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.

Israel set to uncork Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie at UN

 

Israel is readying to uncork the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie at the United Nations - ending UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process Torr Wennesland’s efforts to keep the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (Saudi Solution) from being discussed as a replacement for the failed UN 20 years-old two state solution. 

The Saudi Solution was published on 8 June 2022 in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News. Its author - Ali Shihabi - advises Saudi Arabia’s King-designate, Crown Prince and Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman - on the development of Neom - a new $500 billion mega city the size of Israel

The Saudi Solution 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 - having its capital in Amman -not Jerusalem. 

It supersedes the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - spawned by Saudi Arabia and embraced by the UN -which calls for:

"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."

The UN stands to become totally irrelevant if it continues to refuse to discuss the Saudi Solution following Danny Danon - Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations - claiming at the first Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit - that Saudi Arabia may be one of the next nations to normalize relations with Israel.  

Danon stated:

"We have been in contact with the Saudis for years. I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. .. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year"

This was good news for those seeking an end to the 100 years-old Jewish/Arab conflict - but bad news for the UN which continues to stubbornly support the two-state solution whilst refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the game-changing Saudi Solution since its publication six months ago.  

It beggars belief that on 30 November the UN General Assembly adopted five resolutions on the questions of Palestine and the Middle East without one speaker uttering the words - "Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution" - whose successful implementation would see the Arab populations in Gaza, part of the West Bank and the wretched UNRWA camps in Lebanon and Syria becoming citizens of that newly-created territorial entity. 

Cheikh Niang (Senegal)- Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - introduced its annual report containing developments relating to the question of Palestine between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 - which contained not one reference to the Saudi Solution in its 27 pages. 

Israeli Prime Minister designate Bibi Netanyahu has made his intentions crystal-clear:

"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."

The 2022 Saudi Solution offers Israel:

• sole sovereignty in Jerusalem, 
• sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and 
• abandonment of the 74 years-old Arab claim to return to Israel

The UN must respond to the hope of peace offered by the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie.  

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.

RIP UN two-State solution, Hello Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

The United Nations  two-State solution - first proposed on November 29, 1947 - needs to be finally buried and replaced with the Saudi peace solution proposed on June 8, 2022. 

The 1947 UN solution: Creating one Jewish State and one Arab state between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea (UN two-State solution) - was aimed at ending the Arab-Jewish conflict in Western Palestine which had then been raging for the previous 50 years.

This proposal was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs - becoming the catalyst for the War that broke out in May 1948.  

The Arabs ended up controlling some 22% of the territory between the River and the Sea. The major part was unified with Eastern Palestine located east of the Jordan River - (granted independence in 1946 as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan) - and renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1950. The balance - the Gaza Strip -was occupied and administered by Egypt. 

The founding document of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1964 (PLO) expressly disavowed any claim to sovereignty "over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" and "the Gaza Strip". 

It was only in 1968 - after Jordan and Egypt had lost these lands to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War - that the PLO began to agitate for an independent Arab state west of the Jordan River - employing terrorism to try and achieve it. The PLO strategy failed. However the long-dormant UN two-State solution was resurrected by the international community in:

• 1980: Venice Declaration 
• 1993: Oslo Accords
• 2002: Arab Peace Initiative.
• 2003: President Bush Roadmap 
• 2011: President Obama 
• 2020: President Trump 

Powerful backers indeed - but no such two-State solution has appeared a remote possibility for the last forty years.

A radically-different proposal however surfaced in Saudi Arabia on June 8, 2022 that was both revolutionary and ground-breaking: Merge Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - no new Arab State between the River and the Sea. 

The UN's response has been disgraceful.

Instead of welcoming this Saudi proposal and the prospects its successful implementation offers for ending the Jewish-Arab conflict - the UN has failed to even acknowledge its existence - denying it any oxygen, exposure or traction in the UN. 

Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Process Torr Wennesland have made no public comments whatsoever on the Saudi proposal or included any reference to it in their monthly reports to the Security Council since its release. 

They need to break their silence. 

Until they do - they remain compromised and conflicted. 

A UN closed forum convened on 8 November by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) with Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) from "Palestine" Israel and the United States "Advocating for Accountability in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" --asserted  that "Safeguarding the two-State solution" remained their prime objective. 

Not one of them apparently mentioned the Saudi proposal - whose successful implementation would put them all out of business by finally ending a conflict that has defied resolution for more than 100 years. 

Guterres continued parroting the UN's commitment to the two-state solution on November 22 - without mentioning the Saudi solution - which needs to be aired and debated in the UN General Assembly, Security Council and CEIRPP and no longer suppressed. 

The UN's 75 years-old failed two-State solution to end the Jewish-Arab conflict has well and truly passed its use by date. The time has come for the UN to adopt the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution to replace it. 

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 & King Abdullah keep Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine alive

 

Non-participation by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister – Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)  – and Jordan’s King Abdullah at the 31st Summit of the Arab League held in Algiers on 1 and 2 November – even via Zoom  - was highly significant – signalling that the Saudi-based plan to merge  Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (HKoP solution) still remains a viable solution to replace the failed 20 years-old two-state solution proposed by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API) - endorsed yet again in Algiers. 

Saudi Arabia, the EU, and the Arab League had previously held a closed ministerial meeting on 21 September to activate the API - given the absence of any prospect for a political resolution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This September meeting followed publication of the HKoP solution in Al Arabiya News on 8 June – amazingly attracting no mention at the UN and scant attention in the international media and more importantly within Israel and Israel’s media. 

The HKoP solution was certainly newsworthy since it offered Israel:

• Sole sovereignty in Jerusalem
• Abandonment of the right of Palestinian Arabs to return to Israel
• No separate Palestinian State between Israel and Jordan
• The shelving of the API 
• Sovereignty in part of the West Bank for the first time in 3000 years.

The HKoP solution also offered the Arab populations of Gaza, the West Bank and Palestinian Arab refugees in other locations:

• “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.”
• “Palestinians in Arab countries like Lebanon can then become citizens of this enlarged kingdom while also getting full residency rights in Lebanon, equivalent to what an EU citizen has in the European Union outside his or her home country. This would allow the Palestinians to gain full civil rights as legal foreign residents without impacting the local political or sectarian balance in these countries. The GCC, the EU, the US, Canada, and others can also help support this solution by granting this Jordanian–Palestinian passport easier access to their labor markets.”

The Saudi proposal’s author - Ali Shihabi – is a confidant of MBS and a member of the Advisory Board  appointed by MBS to report to him on the building of a new US$500 billion mega city – Neom - in northern Saudi Arabia bordering Israel. 

Shihabi had lamented on the absence of a response from any Israeli politician to his plan on 14 August. This lack of Israeli interest was ongoing when the 21 September meeting agreed:

“to work with regional and international partners to shed light on the tragic situation of the Palestinians in light of the deadlock in the peace process and the absence of any glimmer of hope and to urge them to take practical steps to support the resumption of dialogue on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, United Nations resolutions and relevant peace references, in addition to reviving the diplomatic track to overcome the despair and lack of a vision toward achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and establishing their state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

MBS was not at this meeting but was subsequently appointed Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister on 27 September. MBS, 

King Abdullah, PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh have not rejected the HKoP solution. 

MBS and King Abdullah’s non-participation at Algiers offers the glimmer of hope that the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can soon become a conflict-ending reality. 

 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.

Roth confounds UN, USA & Australia: Two-State solution 'is gone'

 

Kenneth Roth – recently retired Executive Director of Human Rights Watch – has undermined the continuation of the policy espoused by the UN, USA and Australia for the last 20 years supporting the the creation of a new Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history (two-state solution). 

Addressing a recent discussion hosted by the Washington-based think-tank - Arab Center - Roth declared:

"The two-state solution is great but it's gone”

Roth’s bombshell admission was followed by this statement made by Hady Amr - US deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs: 

"We remain committed to rebuilding our bilateral relationship with the Palestinian people, with the US president's goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps," 

In reversing Australia’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said:

“Australia is committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders. We will not support an approach that undermines this prospect.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been repeating this mantra since 2017:

“A two-state solution that will end the occupation and, with the creation of conditions, also the suffering even to the Palestinian people, is in my opinion the only way to guarantee that peace is established and, at the same time, that two states can live together in security and in mutual recognition,”

This blinkered approach by the UN, USA and Australia has seen each of them refusing to acknowledge – let alone discuss – the merits of a new alternative solution emanating from Saudi Arabia in June: Shredding the failed two-state solution and 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 - whose capital will be Amman – not Jerusalem (Saudi Solution). 

The Saudi Solution supersedes the 1981 and 2002 Saudi Peace Plans – subsequently incorporated in the Arab Peace Initiative adopted in Beirut in 2002. 

Significantly – no rejection of the Saudi Solution has been expressed since its release by:

• Saudi Arabia’s recently appointed Prime Minister: Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman
• Jordan’s King Abdullah 
• PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas
• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
• The Arab League

Roth’s reality call sees the UN, US and Australia exposed as three Emperors with no clothes – paddling furiously against a growing tide of opinion that is destined to consign the two-state solution to the diplomatic graveyard with other failed plans proposed over the last 74 years.

The Saudi Solution is the lifeline the UN, US and Australia need to grab if they wish to see the 100-years old conflict between Arabs and Jews finally resolved. 

The Saudi Solution points the new way forward:

“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.”

Israeli Prime Minister – Yair Lapid – continues to support the two-state solution. 

With Israeli elections set for 1 November - no other Israeli politician has yet told Israeli voters whether they:

• agree with Lapid 
• would back exploring the Saudi Solution and its implementation or 
• what their alternative policy would be for ending the long running conflict.

Flogging a dead horse is in no one’s interest.

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 sinks UN failed two-state solution

 

UK Labour Friends of Israel (UKLFI) has sunk any possibility of a new Palestinian Arab state being created between Israel and Jordan - unsuccessfully promoted by the United Nations for the last 29 years - detailing 30 steps considered necessary before negotiations can even be resumed. 

These steps are:

Step 1: Tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza 

Step 2:  Freeze settlement building 

Step 3: End the Palestinian Authority's payment of salaries to convicted terrorists and the payment of rewards to the families of “martyrs” 

Step 4: Support the establishment of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and re-establish UK support for peace-building work 

Step 5: Encourage Arab states to normalise relations with Israel and deepen the Abraham Accords 

Step 6: Increase work permits for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Jeru

Step 7: Ensure transportational contiguity for Palestinians 

Step 8: Support Jerusalem as capital of Israel and future Palestinian state 

Step 9: Ensure enforcement of UNSCR 1701, international action to prevent Hezbollah's precision-missile project and attacks on Israel 

Step 10: Demand Hamas renounce the use of violence and terrorism

Step 11: Demand Hamas releases hostages 

Step 12: Pressure the Palestinian Authority to stop human rights abuses 

Step 13: Support the development of Rawabi 

Step 14: Ensure Palestinians can travel abroad more freely 

Step 15: Support construction of a Gaza seaport 

Step 16: Support steps towards a permanent Gaza ceasefire 

Step 17: International action to curb Iran's malign activities 

Step 18: Oppose unilateral actions by either side 

Step 19: Pressure Egypt to permanently open the Rafah crossing 

Step 20: Support free elections in the West Bank and Gaza 

Step 21: Preserve the Temple Mount status quo 

Step 22: Expand Palestinian autonomous zones and issue building permits for Area C 

Step 23: Support a reformed UNRWA 

Step 24: Support the reunification of the West Bank and Gaza under PA authority 

Step 25: Support Palestinian economic independence 

Step 26: End incitement in the Palestinian school curriculum 

Step 27: Increase exit permits to allow Gaza residents to study abroad 

Step 28: Action by international donors to improve Palestinian governance 

Step 29: Support a Palestinian seaport at Haifa 

Step 30: Allocate territory in Area C for Palestinian economic development“

Amazingly UKLFI still faithfully continues to repeat the UN's false mantra:

“The two-state solution is the only means by which to guarantee Israel's security and to preserve its identity as a Jewish and democratic state, as well as to satisfy the legitimate demand of the Palestinian people for self-determination and national sovereignty.”

Really? 

Is UKLFI unaware of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution emanating from Saudi Arabia on June 8, 2022 offering  a real alternative to replace the failed UN two-state solution? 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  - this Saudi Plan needs only 2 steps - not 30 - for its successful implementation:

Step 1: 

Redrawing the internationally recognised boundary between Israel and Jordan

Armed only with pencils and erasers negotiators should be capable of designating the border between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine in a matter of months.

Step 2: 

Determining who controls security of the territory of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine west of the Jordan River.

Israel would probably demand total security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River - and if not agreed - the negotiations on this issue could take longer to conclude. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres continues to ignore the existence of the Saudi Solution or call for any discussion of its merits in the Security Council.  

Perpetuating the Jewish-Arab conflict - not trying to end it - has become the UN's shocking agenda. 

The Saudi Plan beckons…

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.

Jordan - PLO - Hamas - UN - EU coy on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

Jordan, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas, United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) now have to choose between two very different two-state solutions to end the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict.

The first:

 

Unsuccessfully pursued by the United Nations for the last 19 years – was renewed again at the sidelines of the 77th Annual Meeting of the General Assembly on 21 September:

"The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan met in New York today in the presence of special guests Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process [UNSCMEP –ed] Tor Wennesland, to consult and coordinate their policies with a view to advancing the Middle East Peace Process towards a just, comprehensive and lasting peace on the basis of the two-state solution..."

..."We emphasize that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution is indispensable for comprehensive peace in the region. We remain firmly committed to enabling and supporting all efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on international law, relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and agreed parameters, including the Arab Peace Initiative. 

We reiterate our conviction that only a negotiated two-state solution based on June 4, 1967 lines, and consistent with relevant UN Security Council resolution ensuring an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel, can fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians."

The second:

Far murkier in its provenance - was published in Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022:

"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)."

The author Ali Shihabi is a close confidante of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Zalman – Saudi Arabia's next King designate. Al Arabiya News is reportedly 60% owned by the Saudi Government. 

This plan shreds the 1981 and 2002 Saudi Peace Plans and 1980 EU Venice Declaration.

Jordan's King Abdullah, PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and the EU have not uttered one word rejecting this Saudi alternative plan since its publication.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNSCMEP Tor Wennesland have refused to discuss or even acknowledge the Saudi Plan's existence.

Israeli politicians: choose either - or neither. Being coy is no longer an option.

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.