Trump Reveals His Mid-East Peace Plan

Last updated on: January 28, 2020 at 4:57 pm by Kermit Zarley

Trump Reveals His Mid-East Peace Plan 2020-01-28T16:57:12-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today, President Donald Trump announced his proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, calling the “deal of the century.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at his side as both men gave prolonged speeches about it, with Trump’s reportedly being about 50 minutes. But Palestinians were glaringly absent. Their leaders had already denounced the plan without knowing for certain its details.

Netanyahu couldn’t praise Trump enough for this plan. Both leaders credited Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, for putting together much of this plan. But Kushner must be recognized as an even more biased player than Trump, since young Kushner has always been an observant, Orthodox Jew.

The foremost element of this Trump plan, as had been leaked in recent days, is that the U.S. now recognizes the 121 Jewish settlements in the West Bank–all of which are illegal according to international law witnessed by many UN resolutions in past decades as well as the UN charter–as sovereign territory belonging to Israel. That in itself will encourage Israel to declare them annexed to Israel. This is the main element of Trump’s plan that irks Palestinians because Israel acquired all of the West Bank in the Six Day War of 1967, and Palestinians claim it should be the heartland of a future Palestinian state. The problem with that is that historically, the West Bank ironically resembles almost perfectly ancient Judea and Samaria which was the very heartland of ancient Israel.

The Trump plan also calls for a Palestinian state, which until now was an uncertainty. That in itself is an advance forward which I applaud. But unilaterally declaring the land of the 121 Jewish settlements in the West Bank as belonging to Israel is not the right way to try to solve this conflict. However, it could further cause Palestinians to give up their demand to acquire most or all of the West Bank for a future Palestinian state.

I wrote a book about this conflict, published thirty years, entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia. In this book I advocate a two-state solution as the only way in which this conflict will be resolved. And I do believe that will happen, but not the way Palestinians have always demanded. Thus, I state in the book that the Palestinians’ proposal that their future Palestinian state be established as two separated pieces of real estate–the West Bank and Gaza Strip–has always been a non-starter. I furthermore state in the book that if this was to ever happen, it will not survive. Why?

In this book, I interpret ten prophecies in the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) to indicate that there will be a Palestinian state, that it will be located solely in the coastal plain, and Israel will annex all of the West Bank, as the map-image on the front cover of this book indicates. (See especially Isaiah 11.14.) Although I do not support Trump’s unilateral plan, which greatly favors Israel at a loss to Palestinians, the plan is one more of many events that have transpired in the past thirty years that move in the direction of what I predict in my book.

Trump’s plan also calls for $50 billion in aid to Palestinians, if they accept this plan, in working toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Trump said that in itself would create 1 million jobs for Palestinians in the region. But the plan does not address the very important issue of the approximately 3.5 million Palestinians who live in UN refugee camps, mostly located in Jordan, Israel’s neighbor. UN principles demand that they be repatriated to their former homeland, present Israel. But does not fly with Israeli Jews since it would threaten Israel being a predominantly Jewish state.

This Trump plan seems to have a contradiction, calling for an “undivided Jerusalem” as the capital of Israel, yet Palestinians having East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, which Palestinians have always demanded. As I state in my book, I think this Palestinian demand has always been an emotional appeal devoid of practicality. A Palestinian state in two separate territories–West Bank and Gaza Strip joined with a twenty-mile corridor–would make it easy for Israel to cut off the capital of the Palestinian state from Gaza if the two countries went to war. That is why a two-state solution should not be anything but two nations lying side-by-side with no non-contiguous land. In fact, the Trump plan wisely calls for this very arrangement. This is another reason why a West Bank-Gaza Palestinian state has always been a non-starter.

Palestinians now need to fully abandon their dream of having a Palestinian state in the West Bank and look elsewhere for a geo-political solution as the fulfillment of their aspiration to have an independent, sovereign state. I believe that now, with this Trump plan in place, Palestinians need to think of a very expanded Gaza Strip as their only chance for their own state. They should offer Israel a land swap–the rest of the West Bank for Israeli territory on the coastal plane south of Tel Aviv. And I believe Egypt should be player by giving Palestinians the region between Gaza and the Wadi el Arish in exchange for I don’t know what.

In sum, this Trump plan represents one more that will force Palestinians to seek their state in a location other than the West Bank. At first, they will think of this negatively because it means Palestinians will have to transfer out of the West Bank. But I believe a very expanded Gaza Strip, with some water from the Nile River and this $50 billion proposed mostly for construction, could offer Palestinians a better state than they could ever achieve in the West Bank.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Mid-East Peace

Previous Post

January 27, 2020

Kenneth Starr Is a Hypocrite

Next Post

January 28, 2020 Trump's Mid-East Peace Plan Map

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the lesson in the Parable of the Lost Coin?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God values each lost person Riches must be counted Money is a blessing Keep your house clean

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »