President Trump is a strange president. He is not politically correct. He has one disadvantage, one that is rare among politicians – he says what he thinks. Not everyone likes, to say the least, everything he says or does. The way he treats the world outside the US borders is complex and problematic. If his dreams were realized, there would be no United Nations, no International Criminal Court, and no European Union.
Another dream of his is for Israel to apply sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. If that happened, tens of millions of American Evangelicals would applaud him. The idea of any future Palestinian state would be shelved. But unfortunately for him, even the president of the world's strongest superpower is not omnipotent.
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Even Israel, which often sees itself as all-powerful, is not. For example, it cannot move 2 million Palestinians. All leaders of the various right-wing governments have acknowledged that reality, as former MK Arieh Eldad proves in his excellent, and wonderfully relevant, book "Things You See from Here." Using news reports and speeches, Eldad demonstrates how all right-wing prime ministers went back on their promises after they were elected and were able to "see things" from a different perspective. Those who read his book will learn how Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu failed to make good on their promises, and in fact made about-faces on their declared policies. They did not apply sovereignty. Declarations are one thing, actions are another.
Some of the local council leaders in Judea and Samaria should review these facts. They oppose the Trump plan, which includes negotiations that could lead to a Palestinian state. When will that state be established, if it is? No one knows. On the other hand, another reality could unfold, one in which Trump is defeated on Nov. 3.
Efrat Local Council leader Oded Ravivi represents a minority among the leadership of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), who see the plan as a disaster. Ravivi is calling on his colleagues to accept it. A few days ago, I listened to an interview he gave to Kalman Liebeskind and Asaf Lieberman on Israel Radio. Yes, he's a settler. Yes, the Palestinians reject the existence of Efrat. If only all politicians could argue their corner like Ravivi does. If not in terms of content, then at least in terms of reasoning and style.
Ravivi said of his friends at the head of other local settlement councils: "The plan offers so many opportunities to implement issues we have prayed for… It includes freedom to build in the territories in which Israeli sovereignty will be applied and more." Perhaps because of his stance, Ravivi is under fire from the Right as a "leftist." Because the plan references a Palestinian state that might be established, if and when.
If the people who oppose the plan from the Right beat down Prime Minister Netanyahu's intention of reaching understandings about the plan with Trump, it would be a pyrrhic victory. And if in the future the plan is replaced by something else, it will be nothing like the current offer because as of now it appears likely that Democrat Joe Biden will be elected president. He opposes Israeli sovereignty over the Green Line, as well as traditional support for Israel. But Biden is not Trump 2.0. If he is elected on Nov. 3, local leaders in Judea and Samaria will miss Donald Trump.
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