Their most blatant lie is the contention that once Israel evacuates the West Bank, the territories will become just another Gaza (a "Hamastan"), a launching pad for rockets and terrorism, when in fact the withdrawal from Gaza was unilateral without any coordination with the Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza at the time.
The economic dependency of the Palestinians in the West Bank on Israel, and security cooperation will not end once there is a peace agreement. Israel is and will remain the economic lifeline for the Palestinians for decades. The Palestinians seek political independence but they cannot (nor do they want to) simply divorce themselves from Israel completely because of these ties. They know about Egypt and Jordan's extensive collaboration with Israel in these areas and how much they benefit from having peace with Israel.
I do not, however, exempt the Palestinians for one moment from responsibility. It is time they stop living in the past; violence and incitement against Israel will do nothing but deprive them of the very thing they want to achieve -- a state of their own. They must be prepared to pay the price for wanting to be free.
They must learn how to shoulder their responsibility, clean up their corrupt political system, and focus on building the infrastructure and institutions of a state. Above all, they must stop poisoning the next generation of Palestinians against Israel, as doing so only victimizes these young boys and girls and deprives them of a better and more promising future.
Before Friedman, Phares, and Kushner advise the president on how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they must answer all of these questions which have major bearing on Israel's very future. I absolutely believe they all genuinely care about Israel and want to do everything they can to ensure its security and prosperity, at peace with its neighbors. But here is where tough love is needed. As Nietzsche succinctly put it, "This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver."
This is precisely the point. Because of their commitment to Israel's well-being, they must carefully think about the ramifications if they recommend to the president to fulfill his campaign promise to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem without simultaneously acknowledging the right of the Palestinians to establish their own capital in East Jerusalem once a peace agreement is achieved.
They must warily consider the implications if Israel were to annex Ma'ale Adumim without agreed-upon land swaps while ensuring a future Palestinian state maintains land contiguity. They must be extraordinarily cautious not to give Netanyahu a blank check to expand the settlements and scuttle the two-state solution and put Israel's future in peril.
As a deal maker, Trump knows that no unilateral action by one party can seal a deal. An agreement between Israel and the Palestinians must be equitable -- a non-zero sum approach that answers to the aspirations of both people, especially because they have no choice but to coexist. Their destiny, like it or not, is intertwined -- either they live in peace and harmony, or in perpetual violence, death, and destruction. Neither can have it their way only.
Here is where you, Mr. Trump, can play a historic role. As a deal maker, I implore you, do not give Netanyahu what he wants. If you do, you will rob the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians of everything they aspire for and set in motion an unrelenting cycle of violence that will spare neither side decades of more pain, agony, death, and destruction. A good and sustainable deal requires give and take; each side must make the necessary concessions and create a mutuality of vested interests to ensure its durability.
Kushner is the least zealous; he knows the Israeli scene well and understands that anything short of evenhanded peace will be to Israel's detriment. We can only hope that he will use his influence as a senior adviser and pave the way for President Trump to make the deal that all of his predecessors failed to achieve.
As the visionary David Ben-Gurion, who was the leading founder of the state of Israel and its first Prime Minister, put it, "Better a Jewish state on part of the land than all of the land without a state."
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