Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ Is Getting Even Better for Israel

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, caused a diplomatic firestorm earlier this summer by telling the New York Times that, under circumstances, “Israel has the right to retain some, but not likely all, of the West Bank.”

This was rightly seen as a departure from traditional American policy and, since Friedman is known to have President Donald Trump’s ear, an early sign of where the U.S. is taking its still undisclosed “Deal of the Century” for an Israel-Palestine peace agreement. Yet Saeb Erekat, the longtime chief negotiator for the Palestinians, dismissed Friedman’s conjecture as impossibility: “Annexation of occupied territory is a war crime under international law.” What more was there to say?

But if the Palestinians saw Friedman’s remark as a one-time gaffe by an inexperienced diplomat, they were disabused of that notion last week when Jason Greenblatt, the U.S. envoy for the region, informed the United Nations Security Council that, in the view of the Trump administration, international law does not apply to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We have all heard cogent arguments claiming international law says one thing or another about this or that aspect of Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Greenblatt told the assembled ambassadors. “Some of those arguments are persuasive, at least to certain audiences. But none of them are conclusive.” 

Nor, in the American view, does the UN or any international institution have the standing to arrive at and enforce a legal ruling. “There is no judge, jury or court in the world that the parties involved have agreed to give jurisdiction in order to decide whose interpretations are correct,” Greenblatt said. “Let’s stop kidding ourselves. If so-called international consensus had been able to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it would have done so decades ago. It didn’t.” 

Greenblatt’s challenge to cherished UN conventions evinced outrage from his audience. Oddly, it didn’t not get much public attention. The Times and other major media ran only wire-service reports on it. Perhaps this was due to heavy interest in Robert Mueller hearings in Washington or Boris Johnson becoming the U.K.’s new prime minister. More likely, it reflected the point that Greenblatt himself was making, that the UN Security Council is a predictable and impotent body.

In fact, Greenblatt’s rebuke to the Security Council, along with Friedman’s June musings on the validity of Israeli territorial claims in the West Bank, are the two dropping shoes of the still unpublished but soon to arrive Trump peace plan, which is being overseen by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. The proposal will no doubt be impatient for results, blunt-spoken and exclusive. The Israelis and the Palestinian Authority will be involved, face-to-face, under the sole auspices of the U.S. The international community, (which Greenblatt mocked as “fictional”) will be treated as uninvited kibitzers.

The U.S. will not even pretend to be a neutral broker. It is Israel’s ally, and supports it on almost every issue. That doesn’t mean the Palestinian side will get nothing. But it does mean that after decades of friendly UN resolutions and international declarations of solidarity, the Palestinian negotiators will start again at zero and make their case. “It is true,” Greenblatt said, “that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority continue to assert that East Jerusalem must be a capital for the Palestinians. But let’s remember, an aspiration is not a right.”

For Erekat and other Palestinian peace processors, this is dismal situation. They have spent their lives constructing a fortress out of paper resolutions, unenforceable legalisms and alliances with nations now preoccupied by their own existential problems. Faced with what amounts to an American diktat, who — apart from Jeremy Corbyn, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Rashida Tlaib and the government of Venezuela - will stand with them?

The Palestinians will certainly object and declare their resistance. But at a certain point, gallant gestures become counterproductive. If they walk away, they will find themselves on the wrong side of a regional map made to American specifications that reflect the real life balance of power.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.

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