Time to make sure Trump plan maintains consequences if Palestinians continue anti-Israel incitement
by David Bedein
At a time when much attention focuses on territorial concessions that Israel would be asked to agree to under the Trump Middle East Plan, few people notice the conditions that the Trump Plan requires to implement the deal.
Here are the defining words that appear in the preamble of “Peace to Prosperity,” the plan that President Donald Trump presented on Jan. 28.
“Palestinian leaders must embrace peace by recognizing Israel as the Jewish state, rejecting terrorism in all its forms, allowing for special arrangements that address Israel’s and the region’s vital security needs, building effective institutions and choosing pragmatic solutions. If these steps are taken and the criteria set forth in this Vision are satisfied, then the United States will support the establishment of a Palestinian State.”
Unlike the unconditional recognition of the PLO that Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama offered, the Trump plan requires the PLO entity to prove its commitment to the war on terror and support for Israel… as conditions for U.S. endorsement of a PLO state.
The Trump plan, on page 34, conditions a Palestinian State in clearly stated terms: “The Palestinians shall have ended all programs, including school curricula and textbooks, that serve to incite or promote hatred or antagonism towards its neighbors, or which compensate or incentivize criminal or violent activity.”
In other words, the Trump Plan will not allow the PLO to create a state until after they’ve eliminated all incitement from their school curricula and textbooks, and repealed the unprecedented PLO ordinance which provides automatic incentives for anyone who will murder a Jew.
Over the past 20 years, ever since the Palestinian Authority began to issue its own school books, our think tank has examined all 364 Palestinian school books and all 109 Palestinian teachers manuals used in all PA and UNRWA schools. They read like read like war manuals.
Nary a mention of peace.
In terms of new texts issued by the PA:
1. New PA textbooks call for a violent struggle for “the liberation of Palestine,” including Israel’s pre-1967 territories which are considered Palestinian territories occupied in 1948. Religious elements include Jihad, martyrdom (shahadah) and the call for the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
2. New PA textbooks teach that Jews in the country will be exterminated.
3. New PA textbooks glorify terror and feature Dalal Al Mugrabi, in terror garb, who commandeered a bus in 1978, and murdered 38 people, including 13 children, as a role model for Arab pupils.
4. New PA textbooks books promote the return of the 1948 refugees to their villages in liberated Palestine… by force of arms.
Meanwhile, over the past three months, our study of official PA electronic media reveals that the PA has indoctrinated the Palestinian people with the idea that the Jews are the cause of the Coronavirus.
And not a day goes by when the PLO does not remind the Palestinian people that anyone who murders a Jew will be honored and paid handsomely for that deed.
Ma Nishtana? Why is the Trump Plan different?
As a journalist, I covered the Wye conference in October 1998 and the presentation of the Trump plan in January 2020.
At the conclusion of each event, the U.S. issued a powerful statement against incitement and antisemitic indoctrination.
At the Wye Conference, convened by Bill Clinton, no anti-indoctrination requirement was laid out by the U.S.
This time, under Donald Trump, concrete conditions were laid out.
The Trump Plan clearly mandates that if incitement and antisemitic indoctrination continue, the U.S. will not support a PLO state.
The time has come for all supporters of Israel to work with Trump to make sure that promise is kept.
David Bedein is director of the Israel Resource News Agency at The Center for Near East Policy Research in Jerusalem.
