U.S. President Donald Trumps' vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is drawn in the conceptual map attached to the peace plan presented last week at the White House.
The map shows the greater Israel extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, with a tiny Palestinian enclave in the West Bank which is cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded on all sides by the State of Israel.
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Trump reveals the deal of the century with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House
(Photo: Gettyimages)
This enclave, even if given the title of "state", could never be considered one.
It will have no army or control of its border or airspace and therefore and, in complete contrast to the wording of the proposed peace plan, would not be open commerce and investments.
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A conceptual map of Israel and Palestine as presented in Trump's peace plan
(Photo: Courtesy)
The Palestinian state's territorial contiguity will also be interrupted by dozens of Israeli settlements and in order to ensure the free movement of the estimated 4 million people that will inhabit its 5000 square kilometers, it will require the construction of at least a dozen tunnels and bridges, with Israel in control of all passages to and from the enclave.
You must be delusional to believe such a territory would have a booming economy that will draw tens of billions of dollars in foreign investments.
Much has been written about the Palestinians' reaction to the Trump plan, which they completely rejected as expected.
Granted, the Palestinian leadership has made countless mistakes, making their constituents grow more and more frustrated, but what about the Israeli response? What are we so happy about?
I fail to see how people, who hold or have held senior positions in the defense and security authorities, can believe the notion of the Palestinian enclave, as suggested by the current U.S. administration, to be a good idea that will in any way serve the State of Israel's national strategic interests.
The center-left Blue & White party have also shown their support for the plan, citing security reasons. This will soon prove to be an act of folly.
The map issued by the White House suggests a solution that is as bad for Israel as it is for the Palestinians. The Palestinian enclave will become a bubbling island of hostility and resistance. A violent tumor that will attack and weaken its host – Israel.
Israel would be making a strategic error by adopting this proposed map. It would be cutting Jordan off from the Palestinian areas.
Israel would be losing Jordan's calming effect on the Palestinians and would be left to its own devices to provide security to and from the Palestinian enclave.
The late Jordanian King Hussein, who officially backed away from his claims over the West Bank in 1988 in favor of Palestinian self-determination, still exerted the kingdom's will on the population and its leaders. By cutting it off geographically, Israel will be losing a valuable alley and will be advancing the one danger the Trump plan set out to avoid – an unstable and unsustainable failed Palestinian state.
It is not the planned annexation of settlements that should worry Israelis, but Trump's version of "peace and prosperity" as laid out in his plan.