A Palestinian peace plan for all of us

12/02/2009

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Original text copyright by the author and MidEastWeb for Coexistence, RA. Posted at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000778.htm where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Distributed by MEW Newslist. Subscribe by e-mail to mew-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by email with this notice and link to and cite this article. Other uses by permission.

by Moderator @ 06:39 PM CST [Link]

Replies: 7 comments

Great piece. But, our author had it right in his book 22 years ago, recently published four years ago.

Publisher’s Note: Our author had it right in 1987, WHEN HE IDENTIFIED AND DISCUSSED ALL THE KEY ISSUES OF THE MIDDLE EAST REGION, but was not published because they said the events he predicted could not possibly happen. Well, they did, and we finally published him when we discovered the manuscript. Mr. Spirko tells us that President Obama’s motive for trying the peace initiative is that this is probably the last chance for peace in the Middle East before a catastrophic World War III event takes place. Spirko says, “It is never too late for peace.” Most of the ideas used at Annapolis and future peace talks are from Spirko’s book. Still, overall, we would have to agree with **** Cheney about intelligence strategies. During World War II, Americans and British firebombed Dresden and Munich where more civilians perished than in the atom bomb attacks on Japan. Bill Clinton bombed civilian trains, bridges and other civilian targets in Belgrade during the Serb-Bosnian war. Didn’t Obama authorize navy seals to shoot three pirates recently? Isn’t that a form of torture? Be sure, all-out war is hell and no place to be. But, the creative intelligence feint at Calais that convinced the Nazis that the invasion was coming there saved thousands upon thousands of lives at Normandy and beyond - American and allied lives. One of those lives saved might even have been your father or grandfather. In the other case, you would not be reading this.

(Jpeg book cover available at Barnesandnoble.com, Borders.com or Amazon.com)

NEW YORK - THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY, a genre spy-thriller by Robert Spirko, was fourth on the best-seller list at Atlasbooks, Inc., a national book distributor. Ingram Books is the worldwide distributor.
Spirko, a financial and geo-political analyst who has given his advice to the National Security Council, turned his attention to the Middle East in 1987, after discovering several common elements related to the Middle East question. He wrote down his analysis, and when he was finished, he not only had a solution to the quagmire, he had a story to tell. THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY foreshadowed the Persian Gulf War by three years, and the resultant Iraq War followed by the Sept. 11 attack.
“Everyone tells me there will never be peace in the Middle East, but I tell them they are wrong. Israel and Egypt have had a peace treaty for 29 years. Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement 14 years ago. A Palestinian State can be created. It can be done and it will be done,” Spirko reiterates. “Twenty-nine years of peace is better than 29 years of war.”
Spirko has given his advice over the years to the National Security Council including the 2000 Camp David Peace Talks under President Bill Clinton.
“We’re not talking about a serpent-tongued, false prophet who will negotiate this peace between Israel and the Islamists, it will be done by a U.S. president and those parties involved in the peace process who will finally achieve it through hard work, tough compromises, and by making specific decisions fair to both sides to agree to end the violence once-and-for-all – by those leaders who want a future for their children,” Spirko says.
“Besides, Israel wants a Palestinian state now, too.”
“In the end, both sides need to address security concerns, reparations and building moral and economic trust. We all report to the same God, whether we call him God, Jehovah or Allah,” he says.
Spirko's key ideas at the 2000 Camp David Peace Talks were to make Jerusalem the simultaneous capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state with congruent borders - one precisely overlapping the other - using two maps - one for the Palestinian state and one for Israel. The city would become an international, undivided open city for people of all religions to visit and the municipality would be governed by a city council of equal Palestinians and Jews with God, Allah or Jehovah as the central sovereign. The Knesset and Palestinian authority would then govern their respective states from that dual capital. In effect, Jerusalem would become a governing district much like the District of Columbia in Washington, D. C. This idea won traction at the 2000 Camp David Peace Talks and was virtually agreed upon, but where the talks broke down and failed was when both sides capitulated to pressures from their own political factions over right of return and reparations. Mr. Spirko has an idea to solve that problem also.
Spirko states, "The chief threat in the region I see right now is the threat to Saudi Arabia by Iran and Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda were to overthrow the present royal family in Saudi Arabia or attack the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the oil supply to western nations including Japan and China, it would bring down entire world economies. France and Germany would be begging us to go to war to retake those oil wells. It would be World War III."
“If such a scenario were to occur,” he reiterates, “France and the European economies would collapse in a matter of weeks.”
“Another looming concern is Iran which wants to develop nuclear weapons to couple with their Shahab 4, 5 & 6 missiles on the drawing boards which have a range to hit London, Israel, all of Europe, southern Russia and the United States. Also, the Iranian government has said it initially had 300 centrifuges to enrich uranium to weapons grade material. They have increased that to 3,000. They will soon increase that again to 10,000 centrifuges,” Spirko says. “They have the additional capacity to add another 20,000 centrifuges in mass production techniques that will enable them to produce at least seven nuclear bombs in about a year. Where did they get these centrifuges?”
Spirko answers that question by stating an Arab proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Simply put,” Spirko explains, “they probably got them from Saddam Hussein before the Iraq War started and were probably smuggled out of Iraq and into Iran just like he did his air force of 600 Soviet fighter planes. In other words, he gave them to his former enemy rather than let them be destroyed on the ground.”
“Why would he have done any differently with the 30,000 centrifuges he supposedly had on a decentralized basis inside Iraq before the war?” Spirko asks. “Isn’t it strange that Iran could come up with a nuclear weapons program in about six months to a year when it took the United States six years under the Manhattan Project with 5,000 of the world’s most brilliant scientists like Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Seaborg, Einstein, Fermi, and others working on it?”
Another point Spirko makes on the Mideast is that, “It is time for the Israelis and Palestinians to return to the Peace Talks, resume where they left off and "freeze in place" the already-agreed-upon negotiating points,” Spirko says.
"And, it's all related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which I said back in 1987 was the crux of my book. It always has been, and always will be until it's settled,” Spirko says. “That linkage is exactly what Osama Bin Laden stated in a taped message aired the weekend before the election in November of 2004. Whether you believe him or not is beside the point. That's what's he told us, and we'd better take that into account."
Spirko’s book is available though area book stores or on the web at Barnesandnoble.com, Borders.com and Amazon.com. The novel is a mass market paperback produced by Olive Grove Publishers, and can be purchased at area bookstores through Ingram Book Group, New Leaf Distribution, and Baker and Taylor, priced at $14.99, ISBN 0-9752508-0-9. THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY can also be ordered on the web at www.atlasbooks.com, or email orders from: order@bookmasters.com, or from Barnes & Nobles, Border's, Dalton's, efollett.com & Follett bookstores at colleges and universities, WaldenBooks, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target.com and other popular retail bookstores. Or, readers and store managers can call 1-800-BOOKLOG, or 800-247-6553 direct, to order.

Posted by OLIVE GROVE BOOKS @ 12/06/2009 05:35 PM CST

Ami

It appears your analysis of Hanania's proposal omits to deal with a substantive amendment made by him two weeks after his initial launch which provides the following additional proposal:

"Israel must be ready to compromise on the settlements and the Palestinians must be ready to compromise on the refugees.

In exchange for compromise on the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees, Israel must be ready to freeze all settlement activity and withdraw from settlements. How many settlements should it withdraw from?

The details can and should be decided by Israel and Palestinians through negotiations. But, we can accept a framework for that resolution and create an atmosphere of peace through which resolution of these details can be facilitated.

V-COMPONENTS

PART 1: LAND SWAP

For every settlement that Israel seeks to keep in the original West Bank, Israel must be prepared to give Palestine and equal amount of land mass from Israel contiguous with the West Bank. Israel must trade dunum-for-dunum land it keeps, surrendering an equal area of land to Palestine.

PART 2: PEOPLE SWAP

For every Jewish settler living in the settlements that Israel keeps, Israel must be ready to permit that number of Palestinian Refugees to return to Israel, (who wish to return).

Israel will provide those Palestinians compensation through the Compensation Fund to build homes, and land on which to build their homes in Israel. Those Palestinian refugees would be given full rights of Israeli citizenship, but would enter Israel through its immigration procedures.

This exchange plan must be completed in five years, with 50 percent of the population allowed to enter Israel within two years of the program beginning.

They would be treated the same way as Jews who return to Israel and be given the same benefits and compensation and support from the Israeli government.

If Israel seeks to retain all of the settlements, then Israel must be prepared to allow up to 500,000 Palestinian refugees to return to live in Israel, should they chose to do so, as Israeli citizens.

The remaining Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return, through the Compensation Fund, to the new Palestine State, or be permitted to travel to any country that wishes to accept them. The choice is up to them.

The Arab World would be required to provide a home and land in their countries for every Palestinian seeking resettlement in this plan.

Israel can reduce the number of Refugees it accepts by returning settlers and disbanding existing settlements. The final number is up to them."

Does the inclusion of these new conditions in any way affect your conclusions as to the acceptability of Hanania's proposals?

Posted by david singer @ 12/07/2009 02:33 AM CST

I wish Mr. Hanania much success. However, the concept of dunum-for-dunum land swaps is faulted in two significant ways:

(1) It most likely would create an unaceptably long and meandering border because Israel would attempt to retain settlements like Ariel which are located deep inside Palestine. Strategically speaking, a border should be as short and straight as possible, while taking into consideration some minor adjustment to make use of nearby defendable terrain.

(2) All land is not equal. There is a reason Israel placed those settlements where they did. Access to water resources makes arable farmland much more valuable than a piece of dry rock.

Aside from those issues, some very limited swapping of land may be necessary.

My other concern is with a statement Israeli PM Netanyahu recently made regarding the eastern border of the West Bank and Jordan. -He said Israel must retain a "security presence" along the border to prevent smuggling of weapons. I'm sure the term "presence" is code for a swath of sovereign Israeli land running along the entire border with Jordan and Syria. In this situation, Israel would be taking land on the Israeli side of the West Bank, and more land still on the Jordanian side. That's a remarkable demand that leaves little land for a second state. -and that of course is the idea.

In addition, the concept of "policing" all cross border traffic for contraband is a perfect method to maintain a permanent de-facto embargo that would strangle any growth of the second state. Finally, as the technology for producing highly accurate long range missiles becomes widely available, the Israeli argument for preventing a Palestinian state on land close to Israeli population centers becomes moot.

Consider this logic:
Even if Israel retained and annexed all of the West Bank, there would still be a border with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon which would be just as vulnerable as any other potential border with a Palestinian state along the West Bank. In light of this, the underlying purpose of the argument becomes clear. The issue of security has been co-opted into an excuse to take and keep land.

Posted by Kiev500 @ 02/03/2010 11:30 AM CST

A very reasonable idea for reconciliation and an end to the conflict...

How much acceptance do you see on either side?

Thanks...

Posted by John Hirsch @ 02/08/2010 05:20 PM CST

I expect no acceptance of this particular package from Hamas, most likely none from the government of Israel, and acceptance of only parts of it by Fatah.

Hamas will demand a state on the Green Line (67 borders). Fatah will be unwilling to allow Israeli settlements like Ariel (which are deep inside the West Bank) to remain. -Allowing Israel to keep those settlements would prevent a viable, contiguous Palestinian state. It would also result in an unnecessarily long and wandering border.

OTOH, the government of Israel is beholden to the powerful ultra-nationalist/settler faction, and will never willingly give up anything larger than the illegal outposts which were created to use as pawns just for this purpose.

Personally, I've always felt the Green Line is the place to start. It was the last internationally recognized border, and the last legal border.

Consider: If a Palestinian state could be formed on the Green Line, and could instantaneously sell portions of the West Bank back to Israel, the goals of both sides could be attained.

On one document, with it's signature, Israel would agree to withdraw to the Green Line and recognize a provisional Palestinian state. The provisional Palestinian state, with it's own signature on the document, would:

(1) Agree to justly resolve the Palestinian right of return by absorbing all expatriot refugees back into Gaza and the West Bank,

(2) Would sell back to Israel some portion of the West Bank land, and

(3) Would recognize the Israeli state along the newly formed border.

Israel would then reciprocate by recognizing a sovereign Palestinian state on the other side of that same border. Of course, the portions of West Bank land to be sold back to Israel would have to be negotiated and agreed in advance.

It's an elegant solution. This method allows all sides to claim their goals were met.

Hamas could claim that Israel withdrew to the Green Line.

Fatah could claim the refugee issue was justly resolved, and that the PA was in sovereign control of the entire West Bank (thus being in a legal position to sell some of the land).

Israel would:
(1) Be rid of the thorny issue of absorbing Palestinian refugees,

(2) Be rid of lingering legal issues surrounding the Settlements because it legally purchased that land from the new Palestinian state, and

(3) The Settlers could claim some the settlements were retained (IE legally purchased), annexed, and absorbed into greater Israel.

It's a win-win situation all the way around.

Posted by Kiev500 @ 02/09/2010 05:09 AM CST

for me its a serious problem that passing palestinian towns in israel i am scared to leave my car. the conflicts between palestinian and israeli people in haifa are normal regular everyday problem. its very sad. palestinian people lived here for a long time. i am sure we can find some solution for this, i think israel have to start with giving to the palestinian people same rights with israeli people..

Posted by bluma@israel @ 02/12/2010 05:09 PM CST

I imagine there are thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are scared to leave their homes for fear of being attacked by gun-toting Settlers or detained by the IDF. Worse, they are afraid to leave their villages for fear of not being allowed to return.

For this problem to end, the illegal occupation must end. The occupation will not end until Israel realizes it cannot use it to justify taking land.

Posted by Kiev500 @ 02/18/2010 05:42 AM CST

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