The “Road Map” plan, which emerged
from the Quartet‘s (the United States, Russia, Europe and the United
Nations) strategic cooperation was presented to the Israelis and the
Palestinians in early May 2003. The plan delineates stages leading to a
peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, when at the first
stage the Palestinians are required to demonstrate governmental reform
and a struggle against terrorism and Israel is required to make an
unequivocal declaration that it agrees to the establishment of a
Palestinian state.
The plan is based on UN Resolutions
242 and 338 (which Israel had already accepted in the past) but also on
the “Saudi Peace Initiative”, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to
the 1967 borders and the “right of return” for the 1948 refugees. The
plan also establishes an international apparatus to be deployed on the
ground and to supervise the plan’s progress. A freeze on Jewish
settlement, dismantling of the settlements, deliberations over the
“right of return” and the “Jerusalem problem” await Israel with the
continued implementation of the plan.
The “Road Map” threatens the very
existence of the State of Israel and all Israeli leaders since the Six
Day War have opposed the principles upon which it is based. The plan,
for all intents and purposes, calls for the transfer of the almost half
a million Jews living today in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Jewish
neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
Withdrawal to the 1967 borders,
internationalization of the dispute, establishment of a Palestinian
state west of the Jordan and the “right of return” for refugees were
always considered existential threats to Israel. Agreement to dismantle
settlements undermines the moral basis for our very residence in the
Land of Israel, as it acknowledges the right of another people over part
of it.
It is incumbent upon the State of
Israel to fight the plan and prevent its implementation and on the other
hand – we must present an alternative plan, which takes into
consideration the Palestinian need for self-determination, the need to
resolve the problem of the refugees – who are the real foundation of
terrorism since the State’s inception – and geopolitical, economic and
historical common sense: The Land of Israel belongs to the People of
Israel by virtue of every conceivable right: Divine promise, the course
of history and international law. The plan learns the lessons from the
failure of all of the plans calling for partition west of the Jordan
ever since the days of the British Mandate, and demarcates two states
for the two nations on the two banks of the Jordan.
Jordan is Palestine ever since it
was established and allocated to that nation in the partition of the
Land of Israel during the British Mandate. Seventy-five percent of its
residents are Palestinian and the entire refugee population residing
today in the camps in Judea, Samaria and Gaza as well as Syria and
Lebanon could be settled there. Large investments in infrastructure and
desalination devices will facilitate that settlement and a solution to
the refugees’ severe humanitarian problem.
Self-rule with municipal authority
will be granted in the framework of seven cantons to all of those Arabs
who are not refugees and who wish to remain in their homes. These
cantons will not be territorially contiguous and will not have any
political authority; they will have a police capability in order to
maintain local order. The residents of the cantons will have
Jordanian-Palestinian citizenship and will vote for the parliament in
Amman.
According to this plan, total
sovereignty over the western Land of Israel, from the Jordan to the
Mediterranean will remain in Israeli hands.