While I'm no prophet, what I'm reading lately about discussions between the Israeli government and the Trump team tells me that we might have blown our chance for a one state Israeli solution regarding the disputed territories. I've been pleading with the Israeli government to seize the moment as soon as Trump was elected to formally declare that Judea and Samaria are part of the Jewish State of Israel. I told Netanyahu that it's up to him and his colleagues to move forward on this quickly. This was a limited window of opportunity to change the shape of the growing nightmare on what to do with the 'West Bank'. I told him that Trump certainly won't do it for them. He can't be seen to be more of a Zionist than they.
It was high time for us to inform the world that this area is and has always been Israel's. For thousands of years it belonged to Israel. For a very short period of time Jordan occupied it and made it Jew free. They destroyed the Jewish holy sites. They made the Jewish holiest site, the Western Wall into a toilet! In the 1967 Six Day War when Israel was attacked on all sides for no reason other than 99% of Muslims hate Jews, G-d was on Israel's side and Israel won that war and reclaimed Judea and Samaria. It was another modern day miracle. The rules of war are simple: In a defensive war any land obtained by the country being attacked is legally theirs. So even if you don't believe in history, the Mandate for Palestine or the holy Torah which brought light to the entire world, according to modern rules of engagement in international law, Judea and Samaria (aka The West Bank) belongs to Israel. All of it. Not just Area A or B or C.
For many years, far too many Israelis and other folks have declared incorrectly that according to the demographics that they forecasted, the West Bank would contain far too many Arabs for Israel to govern in any case. Turns out that they were listening to the lies from Arab leaders. Modern day demographics based on actual population studies and birth rate records prove quite the opposite. Jews continue to outnumber Arabs in the territories as well as inside Israel proper and the divide is growing, thank G-d!
Thanks to Iran's desire to rule the world with nukes, the Sunni states including Israel's neighbour to the west and its former enemy Egypt are now far less concerned about their made up 'Palestinian' issue and are far more concerned about their own well being. Add to this the ongoing nasty war with Syria vs ISIS. This also would be advantageous for Israel as it shifts the focus away from Israel as the world is engaged with that war.
For far too many years, especially the last eight when Obama was in charge, it could have been lethal for Israel to formally annex her land. But when revolutions occur, these are the moments when changes can successfully be made. And Trump's win was no doubt another miraculous revolution. We had a chance right then to make our move. But months later why are we discussing what sort of limits we can put on 'settlement' construction on our land with Donald Trump?
I'm sorry but this looks very bad. Netanyahu should have told Trump directly to his face early on exactly what I wrote above instead of pussy footing around and using the same old language of settlements, peace negotiations, etc. Trump would have respected Netanyahu and Jews even more had they done so. We knew at the beginning that Trump was no historian. Like any successful businessman he needed an executive summary, a five minute history lesson to probably get him on side. But instead our timid approach got us this.
We blew it!