By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--August 31, 2020
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Bush's letter--given to back Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza - made it clear that America did not consider it realistic for Israel to have to comply with the API's territorial demands:
- The April 14, 2004 letter from President Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon--overwhelmingly endorsed by the House of Representatives 407-9 on 23 June 2004 and the Senate 95-3 the next day.
"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion."
- The 2007 Annapolis International Conference convened by President Bush and attended by Russia, China, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Palestinian Authority, the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan, Oman, the UAE, another 7 Arab States and about another 30 non-Arab states.
Israel's then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Israel's readiness to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority " based on previous agreements between us, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the road map and the April 14, 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel." No mention was made of the API forming part of those renewed negotiations--nor could it be - since its total territorial withdrawal demands were undercut by the Bush Congress-endorsed letter. Those Arab nations and entities--indeed all parties present at the Conference-failed to object or demur to the new territorial reality of partial Israeli withdrawal which the Bush letter had engendered.The release of President Trump's peace plan in January 2020 has built on President Bush's 2004 letter - allocating sovereignty in about 30% of the West Bank to Israel with sovereignty in the remaining 70% to be negotiated between Israel and the PLO to enable the creation of a democratic Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history. Saudi Arabia's insistence on Israel's total territorial withdrawal stipulated by the API as the price to be paid for Saudi Arabia signing a peace treaty with Israel has been seemingly backed by Sudan,Bahrain and Oman to prolong the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict.
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Author's note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka " Dry Bones" - one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com