The Deal of the Century: Not All it's Trumped Up to Be

Article based on an interview with Israel Channel 13 TV, which can be seen here.
Translated by Hillel Fendel
Edited by Dena Udren

Dr. Guy Bechor, expert on Middle East affairs and editor of the Gplanet.co.il website, feels that US President Trump's Deal of the Century is not all it's "trumped" up to be. He says the Arab world actually somewhat favors it, that its rejection by the PA means that Jordan will assume control over the Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and that its greatest contribution is the tearing away of the masks of the PA leadership and Israel's peace camp.

Dr. Bechor spoke this morning on Israel Channel 13 TV about the Deal of the Century, saying as follows: 

Dr. Guy Bechor

Let's first put everything in proportions. This [Deal of the Century] doesn't really interest anyone in the world; for the Arab world it's ho-hum, and for the invented nation [the Palestinians] - they're simply not interested. Yes, their leadership in Ramallah announced a day of rage, but don't expect too much rage to actually be expressed. Of course, when they have a day of rage, it's a day of happiness for us. "Bring on the days of rage!" … 

Even in Arab nations, it's not that they're silent or apathetic; they are actually happy about it! They want to get to a point of relations with Israel! What they're sorry about is that they listened to that made-up nation a few decades ago and detached themselves from us. And now we see how things are changing drastically. For instance, the Foreign Minister of Bahrain is in Washington now, apparently about to sign with Israel a no-warfare agreement, which is a type of peace agreement; this is real normalization. Our relations are warming up with Saudi Arabia, too, and in a few months, every Israeli citizen will be able to travel on an Israeli passport to Dubai and the United Emirates. We are headed towards real normalization – something that was prevented only because those Palestinians, that contrived people, requested of the Arab countries to have nothing to do with us – and now those countries are regretting that. It's true that the Arab nations established this Palestinian golem in order to defeat us, but today they regret this, because the golem is now the cause of many problems.

Everything has now changed, and the Arabs living here have lost their veto power regarding us. Let me explain. In essence, every time the Jewish community here flourished, they maliciously tried to destroy what we built. For instance, in 1929 many Jews came here from all over Europe – so they carried out pogroms. In 1934, the international Levant Fair took place here in Tel Aviv, with 30 countries and 600,000 visitors taking part over the course of six weeks; the president of Lebanon even said that his country's delegation was a "sign of friendship to our neighboring nation." How did the Arabs here respond? By carrying out the pogroms of 1936-39. 

Again, in the late 1980's, our economy was beginning to thrive, so the Palestinians carried out Intifada One – and in 2000 this cycle repeated itself: our economy was thriving with hi-tech, and so they began their Intifada II. Every time, we flourished, they tried to impose a military veto. 

However, they can no longer do this, because they understood that this causes them to suffer as well. So what did they do? They changed over to a "diplomatic" veto, that is, struggling against us in the diplomatic arena. 

In this they succeeded for a while, despite my attempts here in this very studio to say that nothing will come of these attempts – but many Israelis sat at home and worried that the UN would do this or that, exactly what the Arabs wanted. But nothing has come of it, and we see now that with this new Trump Plan, the Arab world doesn't care and is even happy; America is with Israel, and everything is different. The Palestinians no longer have a diplomatic veto. 

In short: The masquerade party is over! Look at this: Israel's peace camp – that which defined itself for decades as such – now is against peace! 

Q. They're not against peace, but rather feel that this is not peace, because a peace agreement must be two-sided, and the other side also has to get something. 

A. Oh sure: Whenever the deal on the table was talking about the destruction of Israel, they were in favor. But when now, for the first time, it looks like a peace deal that will actually last and Israel will be able to survive and even flourish – they're against peace! In other words, there was a masquerade party, and the distinguished President, Donald Trump, tore off all their masks! And also off the faces of the Palestinians – they always had a plan of stages against us; now we have learned from them, and we have our plan of stages. I'll explain: 

As I have been saying for months, the US Administration has been pressuring us to annex areas in Judea and Samaria. Actually, this is not annexation, because it already belongs to us; what I mean is the application of Israeli Law. Ambassador David Friedman told the New York Times that it is our full right to "annex" Judea and Samaria (though not all of it; he said we have to leave them something). The American government is more Zionist than our own government! 

The Palestinians thought that this Administration was finished, and then a Democrat would soon replace Trump. The Iranians also thought he was finished. But he's not finished! He has another whole year, and in my opinion another four years after that… 

This is a plan of stages: The first stage is the application of Israeli law. This means the removal of this Sword of Damocles from over our heads, namely, the threat of a Palestinian state. The PA will of course reject this out of hand; this is absolutely clear, no doubt about it. And after that happens, we go to the next stage – which is that Jordan is [recognized as] the Palestinian state, the real one. How so? Because the partition between Jews and Arabs was already made, in 1920 – that's why [he smiles] it's called the Deal of the Century.  We received the whole thing at that time, from the Mediterranean to Iraq – but then Churchill cut it in half! I want everyone to hear this, because they don't teach this in the schools; they only teach the invented history made up by the other side. Churchill invented Jordan and gave it to the Arab side, in order to hurt the Zionist cause – but that's the final cut; there will be no further division or partition between Jews and Arabs in our land; Judea and Samaria is ours! 

By the way, all the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria originally had full Jordanian citizenship, but King Hussein removed this in 1988 when he simply detached Judea and Samaria from his kingdom. I remember the Jordanian news broadcasts, which used to show these areas attached to Jordan, but from the very night of that announcement, they were shown as separate. 

The fact is, however, that according to international law, if a country removes citizenship from people who will then be left without any citizenship, the removal is not valid. Therefore, Jordanian citizenship will return to the Arabs of these areas, and their lives will be involved with Jordan. There will also be incentives for them to relocate to Jordan, with new cities and new universities there. The deal will not involve only Israel, but also Sinai and Egypt and Jordan; they will all help, because they are dependent not only on the US, but also on Israel! Who would have believed? In the 90's we were seeking them out as if they were doing us a favor, but now we're the ones doing them a favor – and our price has therefore gone up.

Q. But the Palestinian side is totally removing itself from the Trump Deal. Won't that make it quite difficult to implement?

A. Yes, it will. And that's because of this Trojan Horse [the Palestinian Authority] that we so stupidly brought in to our very borders. Who could have ever thought to bring in 45,000 terrorists, with their weapons, into our homes!  Could anyone imagine bringing in 45,000 ISIS terrorists into our borders?! It's simply inconceivable! And no one was even brought to trial for doing this! Thousands of people were killed because of it… This Trojan Horse, the Palestinian Authority, must be done away with. If King Abdullah of Jordan doesn't cooperate, he will return to the Arabian Peninsula; and if the PA doesn't cooperate, its leaders will be returned to Tunis, from where the Israeli government itself actually brought them here!! Unbelievable… But we are now in the period of rectifications.  

To conclude: The greatness of this Deal of the Century – even if it is not actually implemented – is that it tears away all the masks.