{"id":54388,"date":"2020-02-04T17:15:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T11:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=54388"},"modified":"2020-02-26T17:15:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T11:45:31","slug":"7-pm-old-faultlines-new-west-asia-4th-february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-old-faultlines-new-west-asia-4th-february-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Old faultlines new west Asia | 4th February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>President\nDonald Trump\u2019s Middle East plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news: <\/strong>President\nDonald Trump unveiled his long-awaited&nbsp;Middle East plan,&nbsp;\u201cPeace to\nProsperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli\nPeople.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West\nAsia:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"544\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1-8.jpg?resize=678%2C544&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"https:\/\/www.mapsofworld.com\/asia\/maps\/western-asia.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-54403\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>West\nAsia includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus,&nbsp;Georgia,&nbsp;Iraq,&nbsp;Israel,&nbsp;Jordan,&nbsp;Kuwait,&nbsp;Lebanon,&nbsp;Oman,&nbsp;Palestine,&nbsp;Qatar,&nbsp;Saudi\nArabia,&nbsp;Syria,&nbsp;Turkey,&nbsp;United Arab Emirates and&nbsp;Yemen.<\/li><li>West Asia or the Middle East routinely\nmakes headlines due to a complicated array of security challenges.<\/li><li>The West Asian region has a vibrant\nhistory and influential political and economic ties across the Asia-Pacific,\nincluding with the United States. <\/li><li>West Asia remains a vital source of\nenergy and remittances for many countries across Asia, and its importance has\ngrown as the challenges it faces increasingly involve other parts of the world.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"\"><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><strong>New West Asia or New Middle East:<\/strong> The term \u201cNew Middle East\u201d was introduced\u00a0to the world in\u00a0June 2006\u00a0in Tel Aviv\u00a0by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice\u00a0(who was credited by the Western media for coining the term) in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the \u201cGreater Middle East.\u201d\u00a0The term and conceptualization of the \u201cNew Middle East,\u201d was subsequently heralded by the U.S. Secretary of State and the Israeli Prime Minister at the height of\u00a0 the Anglo-American sponsored Israeli siege of Lebanon.The term and conceptualization of the \u201cNew Middle East,\u201d was subsequently heralded by the U.S. Secretary of State and the Israeli Prime Minister at the height of\u00a0 the Anglo-American sponsored Israeli siege of Lebanon. <em>Note: This map of New West Asia is not official. However, it has been used in a training program at NATO\u2019s Defense College\u00a0for senior military officers. It has been causally allowed to surface in public, maybe in an attempt to build consensus and to slowly prepare the general public for possible, maybe even cataclysmic, changes in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/em> <em>\u00a0<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nare the issues at stake?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of all the\nconflicts in the Middle East, that between Israel and the Palestinians has been\nthe most intractable. Although the two sides signed a peace accord in 1993,\nmore than a quarter of a century on they are arguably as far apart as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Jerusalem:&nbsp;<\/strong>Both\nIsrael and the Palestinians hold competing claims to the city. Israel, which\noccupied the formerly Jordanian-held eastern part in 1967, regards the whole of\nJerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem &#8211; home to about\n350,000 of their community &#8211; as their future capital<\/li><li><strong>Palestinian\nstatehood:&nbsp;<\/strong>The Palestinians want an independent state of their\nown, comprising the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Israeli prime ministers\nhave publicly accepted the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel &#8211; but\nnot what form it should take.<\/li><li><strong>Recognition:<\/strong>&nbsp;Israel\ninsists that any peace deal must include Palestinian recognition of it as the\n&#8220;nation-state of the Jewish people&#8221;, arguing that without this\nPalestinians will continue to press their own national claims to the land,\ncausing the conflict to endure. The Palestinians say what Israel calls itself\nis its own business, but to recognise it as the Jewish state will discriminate\nagainst Israel&#8217;s Arab population of Palestinian origin, who are Muslims,\nChristians and Druze.<\/li><li><strong>Borders:<\/strong>&nbsp;Both\nsides have fundamentally different ideas as to where the boundaries of a\npotential Palestinian state should be. The Palestinians insist on borders based\non ceasefire lines which separated Israel and East Jerusalem, the West Bank and\nGaza between 1949 and 1967. Israel says those lines are militarily indefensible\nand were never intended to be permanent. It has not said where borders should\nbe, other than making clear its own eastern border should be along the Jordan\nRiver.<\/li><li><strong>Settlements:&nbsp;<\/strong>Since\n1967, Israel has built about 140 settlements in the occupied West Bank and East\nJerusalem, as well as 121 outposts &#8211; settlements built without the government&#8217;s\nauthorisation. Settlements are considered illegal by most of the international\ncommunity, though Israel disputes this. Palestinians say all settlements must\nbe removed for a Palestinian state to be viable. Mr Netanyahu has vowed not\nonly to never to uproot any settlements but to bring them under Israeli sovereignty.<\/li><li><strong>Refugees:\n<\/strong>The\nUN says its agencies support about 5.5 million Palestinian refugees in the\nMiddle east, including the descendants of people who fled or were expelled by\nJewish forces from what became Israel in the 1948-49 war. Palestinians insist\non their right to return to their former homes, but Israel says they are not\nentitled to, noting that such a move would overwhelm it demographically and\nlead to its end as a Jewish state.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nProposed Plan: <\/strong>The \u2018peace plan\u2019, which had been in the pipeline since\nTrump took over, was announced by Trump alongside Israeli Prime Minister\nBenjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed the deal\nas \u201cunworthy of consideration\u201d. The Trump plan seeks to address most of the\ncontentious issues in the conflict such as the border of Israel, status of\nPalestinian refugees, Jewish settlements on the West Bank, land swap between\nIsrael and&nbsp;Palestine,&nbsp;Israel\u2019s security concerns and the status of\nthe city of Jerusalem.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Highlights\nof the proposed plan are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Israel would be allowed to annex the\nJewish settlements on the West Bank as well as the Jordan Valley.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Though\nUS says that the plan will help in doubling the Palestinian territory and\nprovide a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem, but the Palestine\nLiberation Organisation (PLO) said the plan would give Palestinians control\nover 15% of what it called &#8220;historic Palestine&#8221;.<\/li><li>Jerusalem will remain Israel&#8217;s undivided\ncapital. The Palestinians insist East Jerusalem to be the capital of their\nfuture state.<\/li><li>It has been suggested that no\nPalestinians or Israelis will be displaced from their homes, as the Jewish settlements\nin the Israeli-occupied West Bank will remain intact.<\/li><li>At present Jordan runs the religious\ntrust that administers the key holy site in Jerusalem (known to Jews as the\nTemple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims). Israel will work with Jordan\nto ensure the status quo of the site governance. <\/li><li>Israel would freeze further settlement\nactivities on the West Bank and all the territories will remain open and\nundeveloped for four years (time for negotiations). During this period, the\nPalestinian Authority should dismiss its current complaints at the\nInternational Criminal Court against Israel and refrain itself from taking\nfurther actions. It should also crack down on \u201cterrorist\u201d groups such as Hamas\nand the Islamic Jihad.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Status of Jerusalem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Both Israel and the Palestinians make\nnon-negotiable claims over Jerusalem. The plan says Jerusalem will not be\ndivided, and it will remain \u201cthe sovereign capital of the State of Israel\u201d. <\/li><li>The capital of Palestine can occupy\nfar-flung eastern neighbourhoods lying beyond \u201cthe existing security barrier\u201d,\nwhich can be renamed Al Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem.<\/li><li>According to the plan, \u201cJerusalem\u2019s holy\nsites should be subject to the same governance regimes that exist today\u201d, and\n\u201cshould remain open and available for peaceful worshippers and tourists of all\nfaiths\u201d.<\/li><li>During the 1967 war, Israel seized\ncontrol of East Jerusalem, which has Temple Mount, home to the Western Wall,\nthe al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock. <\/li><li>To Israel, Jerusalem is its undivided\ncapital, and the US moved its embassy to the city from Tel Aviv in May 2018 \u2014\nbut very few countries recognise it as such. The UN has condemned the Israeli\nannexation of East Jerusalem.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>International\nReaction:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has\ndismissed the deal as \u201cunworthy of consideration\u201d. <\/li><li>Saudi Arabia and Egypt welcomed\nPresident Trump&#8217;s efforts and called on Israel and the Palestinians to resume\nnegotiations.<\/li><li>Jordan said the only path to peace was\nto establish an independent Palestinian state, based on pre-1967 boundaries,\nwhile Turkey&#8217;s foreign ministry dismissed Mr Trump&#8217;s proposals as an\n&#8220;annexation plan&#8221; aimed, it said, at killing a two-state solution and\nstealing Palestinian land for money.<\/li><li>British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab\nurged the Palestinians to give the plans &#8220;genuine and fair consideration\nand explore whether they might prove a first step on the road back to\nnegotiations&#8221;.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>India\u2019s\nStand:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A day after US President Donald Trump\nannounced his new \u201cpeace plan\u201d for the Middle East, India asked Israel and\nPalestine to engage with each other, including on Trump\u2019s proposals.<\/li><li>India has been consistently supportive\nof the Palestinian cause. India has also called for a two-state solution to the\nIsraeli-Palestinian issue. <\/li><li>India reiterated its view that the final\nstatus issues should be resolved through direct negotiations between the two\nparties and be acceptable to both.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plan says it\nhas the \u201cpotential to facilitate more than $50 billion in new investment over\n10 years\u201d, and could \u201cfundamentally transform the West Bank and Gaza\u201d. It\nincludes constructing essential infrastructure including \u201chigh-speed\ntransportation links\u201d between the West Bank and Gaza, promoting private sector\ngrowth, upgrading education, and improving the healthcare sector and the\noverall quality of Palestinian life. Both Israel and Palestine needs to engage\nwith each other to resolve the issues for a greater good.<strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/old-faultlines-new-west-asia-6249451\/\">https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/old-faultlines-new-west-asia-6249451\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: President Donald Trump\u2019s Middle East plan. More in news: President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited&nbsp;Middle East plan,&nbsp;\u201cPeace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People.\u201d West Asia: West Asia includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus,&nbsp;Georgia,&nbsp;Iraq,&nbsp;Israel,&nbsp;Jordan,&nbsp;Kuwait,&nbsp;Lebanon,&nbsp;Oman,&nbsp;Palestine,&nbsp;Qatar,&nbsp;Saudi Arabia,&nbsp;Syria,&nbsp;Turkey,&nbsp;United Arab Emirates and&nbsp;Yemen. West Asia or the Middle East routinely makes headlines due&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-old-faultlines-new-west-asia-4th-february-2020\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Old faultlines new west Asia | 4th February 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704954001},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}