Peace Plan

While the Senate and the House before it waste the country's time and money on a sham impeachment, the executive branch is doing something novel—getting stuff done. The latest accomplishment (although far from a done deal) has been buried in the news and is getting a lukewarm reception by a media that would be ready to nominate a Democrat president for the Nobel peace prize, is the Trump administration's "peace plan" that addresses the 70-year Israel-palestinian conflict.

It should be noted that the palestinians have rejected every peace plan offered to them for 70 years—they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And it's likely that this plan will be rejected by the world's most vociferous 'victims' as well. But Trump decided to try.

Stephen Green comments on it's reception in the Arab world:

“The Arab world responded by sending three of its American ambassadors to Trump’s unveiling, with pledges of generous support. Israel responded by having both of its rival potential leaders, Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, sign off on “Peace to Prosperity” in advance. The Palestinians responded by throwing a riot.”

While the usual media suspects feed their daily does of Trump Derangement to their progressive audience and/or denigrate Trump's peace plan attempt,* the editors of the Wall Street Journal comment intelligently on the plan:

From the press coverage of the Trump Administration’s Mideast peace efforts led by Jared Kushner, you’d have thought the White House was going to dismiss Palestinian statehood and ask for no concessions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet the plan described Tuesday at the White House is far more thoughtful. Its thrust is a high-profile endorsement of the two-state solution, and the political implications for Mr. Netanyahu are not yet clear.

This is a pro-Israel plan by historical standards. It envisions Palestinians controlling much less territory than they would under the 1967 borders, including as much as 80% of the West Bank. It would not require the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and it demands that Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, be disarmed. Israel would control the Jordan River valley that it says is vital to security on its eastern border.

Yet far from bowing to the demands of Israel’s settlers, the plan provides for a four-year settlement freeze on construction in the West Bank, and settler groups are criticizing it. More important, the plan gives a political boost to the two-state solution that Mr. Netanyahu’s base has been abandoning. It also anticipates a high-speed rail link between Gaza and the West Bank that is sure to raise objections from Israeli security hawks.

It's worth noting that the palestinians have done absolutely nothing to eliminate their massively corrupt, human-rights abusing, and terror-sponsoring governance. It's also worth noting that their authoritarian government is virulently anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-woman, and anti-Democratic and tends to violate virtually every woke dictum that is used to assess other peoples. But that doesn't persuade the Left to consider them dispassionately. The palestinians are the darlings of the Left and as a consequence, have been rewarded a continuing stream of hundreds of billions of dollars in governmental welfare which has enriched the palestinian ruling class and kept its people in the gutter.

It's unlikely that Trump's plan will succeed, but unlike the Democrat's in Congress, at least his administration is trying to accomplish something other than his removal.

FOOTNOTE:
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* This from Politico:

The motives behind a document conceived without any Palestinian input [that's because the Palestinian refused to participate], unveiled on the same day as an important vote in the Israeli parliament on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s immunity, and less than a year before Americans vote for their next president, are at once more mundane and more grandiose.

The mundane reasons, first. It’s hard not to see in the timing an effort by Trump to help Netanyahu in Israel’s elections six weeks from now, and, more than that, an effort by Trump to help Trump – to shore up support from evangelicals and conservative Republicans as he heads into his re-election campaign.

Critics argue that the administration ought to have waited for the outcome of the March Israeli elections and the formation of a new government, but that misses the point. To wait that long would mean waiting until May, if not longer should elections once again end inconclusively, which means taking the risk of not releasing it at all. Besides, the rollout provides a welcome distraction from the impeachment trial, allowing the president to claim he is dedicated to important matters of state as Democrats fiddle with crass politics.

I love it when progressives attribute political motives to the GOP but NEVER ascribe any political motives to their party of choice. It all just a "distraction," huh? It's all an attempt to help the hated Bibi Netanyahu, a leader who embarrassed a feckless Barack Obama and will never be forgiven. BTW, Netanyahu's opponent, Benny Gantz, has also endorsed Trump's effort.

The Left already hates the peace plan—because ... Trump and the "oppressor"—Israel.