The Knesset has approved meeting and reviewing some or all of the “No Preconditions” at the request of President Trump hours before his arrival in Israel yesterday. These were the “No Preconditions” which are presumed to permit Mahmoud Abbas to claim he has gained the Palestinians certain items and even a potential new route for terror entry into Israel as part of the agreement for possible talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) leader and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as agreed upon initially with the understanding there were to be no preconditions in order to hold the talks. Now we know what “No Preconditions” exactly means when defined by the Trump Administration and it appears President Trump has agreed that “No Preconditions” means exactly the same as what no preconditions meant to President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, President Barack Hussein Obama, Yasser Arafat and also Mahmoud Abbas. Now, as usual, Prime Minister Netanyahu waited until hours before President Trump was to arrive to reveal exactly what the “No Preconditions” were to be and the Knesset, with limited time to discuss and digest the ramifications and potential disaster which might be derived from meeting the “No Preconditions” as defined and explained thus far, agreed on accepting the “No Preconditions” just in time for the arrival of President Trump. So, perhaps we should discuss what exactly these “No Preconditions” are as far as has been released and the potential ramifications of these “No Preconditions” on Israel and her security.
The “No Preconditions” are designed, in theory, to facilitate the Palestinian economy, which is another means of saying increase the money skimmed from every venture by Mahmoud Abbas’s two sons, Tareq and Yasser, as their companies benefit from virtually every venture undertaken under their father’s tenure. These “No Preconditions” are being sold once more as “confidence-building measures” meant to assure Abbas that the Israelis are sincere about trying to make peace. One might ask where are the signs that the PA and Abbas are interested in making peace? Of course, anybody familiar with the history of the PA and Israeli relations and peace process already know that there is absolutely no interest by Abbas or the PA or the entirety of the Palestinian elite in making peace as were they to make peace the remainder of their lives would be shortened greatly as well as the lives of relatives and anybody found to have anything to do with making any form of agreement with Israel. This has been why Israel always has to meet these “No Preconditions” and the PA just has to make demands under the ersatz of “No Preconditions” and the United States will always come through and pressure Israel into meeting them. In a statement released by the Trump Administration it was stated that President Trump “has been encouraging both sides to take steps that improve the environment for peace making. He has expressed particular interest in taking steps to improve the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” The Gaza Strip, oh this is going to be great, we can just feel it. There will be no problems making things better for Hamas and there will be no chance that Hamas will use anything provided to make more tunnels into Israel and manufacture more and larger rockets and possibly, if given the right economic assistance, accurate missiles as well.
Another effort amongst the “No Preconditions” is the enlargement of a Palestinian industrial zone on the edge of the southern West Bank. This would be one that is relatively close to Beersheva with Dimona and the nuclear reactor just a little further removed, but why worry. Another of the “No Preconditions” put into motion will be the streamlining transit procedures at Shaar Ephraim, a busy crossing point in the northern part of the occupied West Bank for Palestinian workers with permits to work in Israel. If such a streamlining comes with additional personnel and equipment such that the levels of security are not compromised, as no terrorist has ever attempted to enter Israel using another Palestinian Arab’s work identification and crossing during one of the busiest times hoping to get past hard pressed and rushed screeners trying to approve the workers as quickly while remaining vigilant for unauthorized individuals. Why should the Trump Administration worry about terrorists entering Israel when there are photo ops and a potential agreement where Israel gives and the PA takes and everyone smiles and Trump claims to have made the greatest deal ever. What could possibly go wrong. And there is even one in here that will interest Jordan. The bridge linking the PA areas to Jordan is to be opened 24/7 for crossing into and out of Jordan. Again, who is going to pay for the extra screeners and other expenses, let me guess, Israel.
But wait, there are two really wonderful ideas that simply cannot go wrong. First is a “No Precondition” that cannot go wrong. They want Israel to look into the possibility of extending Israel Railways services to the northern West Bank city of Jenin. You know, the same Jenin that was, and still is, such a hotbed of terrorist activity that the Israelis during the war to end the Second Intifada fought an hours long battle against terror forces while going house to house in order to prevent civilian casualties and risking planted explosives and families forced to remain in trapped homes waiting for the IDF soldiers to enter and then exploding the home in attempts to murder both the soldiers and the families inside. This brought on the myth of the Jenin massacre which even a United Nations task force proved was a complete hoax and that almost all the casualties were fighters, with Israel having twenty-three dead and fifty-two wounded and the PA had fifty-three dead (forty-eight combatants and five civilians) and numerous wounded with no definitive count given. So, sure, let us extend the Jerusalem rail lines to Jenin and see what might possibly go wrong, sounds simply marvelous. What is the final “No Precondition” agreed upon. This one is according to Haaretz and it is a great one. This “No Precondition” calls for allowing PA construction of major city centers throughout the sixty percent of Judea and Samaria under Area C, which was under the Oslo Accords to be under complete Israeli control, and no PA construction was to be permitted in this area.
It is also the sole area where there are next to no PA Arabs residing but with this plan that can all change and there will be thousands of new facts on the ground making it next to impossible for Israel to retain anything of Judea and Samaria and will all but assure the pre Six Day War lines will once again be forced upon Israel. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, of the Religious-Nationalist-Zionist Jewish Home party, “objected vehemently” to the building plans and we would like to join their protest and add a cherry on top just to make our feeling better emphasized. In truth there is much in this that we find abhorrent and of committing Israel to taking steps which border on a guarantee that there will be a major war between Israel and the Arab world where the weapons from the $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that President Trump just signed will come in very handy on the Arab side. Further, the weapons provided to Hezballah, otherwise known as the Lebanese Army, by President Obama which included Abrams Main Heavy Battle Tanks will also work well for the Arabs and any weapons provided in the near future, which we know will be coming down the pike real soon, with Jordan and Egypt will come in handy when they decide that getting in on the death of Israel is far more important than their peace treaty plus any weapons left in Iraq and whatever else will all come in to play. This next war if Israel is pressed back to the pre Six Day War lines will not be a replay of 1967 but a replay of 1948 where over a half dozen Arab armies attempted to destroy Israel and they nearly did. That was the war which gave Israel the problem areas of Gaza and Judea and Samaria being claimed by Arabs when Israel was to have been from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and those were her borders on that bright sunrise on May 15, 1948, mere minutes before the onslaught was to commence and by some miracle of Hashem Israel survived. A similar miracle came in the Six Day War where Hashem again gave Israel her victory against overwhelming odds. Israel does not desire any more wars and simply would accept peace if it would mean peace and not as a ruse to reset the pieces on the board to try once more to destroy Israel. This is why some of the “No Preconditions” are so dangerous.
Beyond the Cusp