Israel
10 failed State Department plans for Mideast peace
By RAFAEL MEDOFF/JNS.org WASHINGTON – A former State Department official’s new plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace is the latest in a long series of Foggy Bottom proposals for a Mideast solution that went nowhere.
Writing on the op-ed page of The New York Times Jan. 5, former Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk argued that dividing control of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is the key to “moving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process forward.”
Here are the State Department’s previous major proposals for Israeli-Arab peace:
10. The Byroade Plan
Assistant Secretary of State Henry Byroade was the spokesman for a 1954 U.S. proposal for Israel to severely restrict Jewish immigration from around the world, because the Arab world considered aliyah “threatening.” A Jewish anti-Zionist group, the American Council for Judaism, helped shape Byroade’s plan.
9. The Rogers Plan
In a Dec. 9, 1969 policy statement, Secretary of State William Rogers called on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 armistice lines with only “insubstantial alterations.” The Israeli government under Prime Minister Golda Meir responded that if the Rogers Plan were implemented, “the security and welfare of Israel would be in very grave danger.”
8. The Reagan Plan
In the wake of the war between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon, the State Department persuaded President Ronald Reagan to put forth a peace plan. In a Sept. 1, 1982 address, Reagan called for a halt to all Jewish settlements and “elections for a self-governing Palestinian authority,” followed by five years of “full autonomy.” He said the U.S. did not favor “an independent Palestinian state,” but he also said Israel should “withdraw [from] the West Bank and Gaza.” The Israeli cabinet unanimously rejected the plan as “a serious danger to Israel’s security.”
7. The Arafat First Plan
In 1988, State Department officials Dennis Ross and Daniel Kurtzer convinced outgoing Secretary of State George Shultz that Yasser Arafat was “moving in a moderate direction” and therefore deserved U.S. recognition. The U.S.-Arafat relationship collapsed 17 months later when a PLO faction attempted to massacre Tel Aviv beachgoers.
6. The Clinton Parameters
Drafted by Dennis Ross and other State Department officials, the Clinton Parameters were put forward in U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian talks in December 2000, just before President Bill Clinton left office. The plan called for a Palestinian state in 95 percent of the disputed territories as well as Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount and other parts of eastern Jerusalem. Arafat rejected those terms.
5. The Road Map
A follow-up to the 1993 Oslo Accords, the “Road Map” was drafted by the State Department in 2002 and put forward by the Middle East Quartet (the United Nations, U.S., European Union and Russia) the following year. It outlined a three-phase plan leading to creation of an independent Palestinian state. The plan fell apart when the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to implement the phase one requirement to disarm and outlaw all terrorist groups.
4. The Golan Plan
Beginning in 2009, former State Department official Frederic Hof and Dennis Ross, now an adviser to President Barack Obama, attempted to bring about an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights to Syria. The effort ended when the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.
3. The Ross Plans
As an adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama in 2009-2011, Dennis Ross pressured Israel to allow cement into Gaza (which was later used by Hamas to build tunnels); in articles and speeches since then, Ross has called on Israel to halt most construction in its portions of the disputed territories. Israel froze settlement construction for 10 months, but the PA did not reciprocate.
2. The Kerry Plan
This five year-effort began with Obama’s May 19, 2011 call for a Palestinian state “based on the 1967 lines,” and culminated in Secretary of State John Kerry’s Dec. 28, 2016 speech urging “shared” control of Jerusalem and a halt to construction even within existing settlements. Israel’s leaders, joined by Great Britain’s prime minister, said the Kerry Plan was one-sided in its support of Palestinian positions and only “paid lip service” to the problem of Palestinian terrorism and incitement.
1. The Divided Jerusalem Plan
As U.S. ambassador to Israel in September 2000, Martin Indyk first publicly urged Israel to “share the governance of Jerusalem and its holy sites” with the Palestinians. Now, in his January 2017 New York Times op-ed, Indyk has urged the incoming Trump administration to push for dividing control of Jerusalem between Israel and the PA, which Indyk contends would “open the way to negotiation on other final-status issues like the borders of a Palestinian state.”
Political historian Gil Troy, of McGill University, told JNS.org that the State Department’s plans regarding Israel often have been driven by appeasement rather than principle.
Kerry’s recent warning against moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “wasn’t a principled argument, but was simply based on fear of violence by extremists,” and “is exactly the kind of cowardice that comes from State and which [incoming President Donald] Trump will abhor,” Troy said.
He predicted that “the chance of a clash between a tweet-driven, populist, seat-of-the-pants Trump White House and the striped-pants types at the State Department is huge.”
Prof. Troy is the author of a recent book about U.S. Ambassador Daniel P. Moynihan’s fight against the U.N.’s “Zionism-is-racism” resolution and Moynihan’s clashes with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Moynihan “feared that too many State Department bureaucrats were so concerned about how their actions would be perceived on the cocktail party circuit in Scarsdale, that it inhibited them from acting effectively–true then, true now,” Troy said. “Many State Department officials forget Moynihan’s essential lesson that diplomacy doesn’t just mean being nice, but requires using many different tools–because in a tough world, you can’t always play nice.”
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
Features
Message from a Palestinian in Gaza to protesters: “You’re hurting the Palestinian cause”
A very brave Palestinian who was willing to put his name to paper and write an article for Newsweek Magazine has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all those students – and others, who have been setting up encampments across the U.S. – and now Canada, too.
You can read the article at https://www.newsweek.com/message-gazan-campus-protesters-youre-hurting-palestinian-cause-opinion-1894313
Features
The Most Expensive Israeli Soccer Transfers
Even if Israel isn’t known as a world soccer power, it has produced plenty of talented players who have made a living in top European leagues. On more than one occasion, an Israeli international has commanded a rather large transfer fee. But who are the most expensive players in Israel’s history? The answer could be a little surprising. We took a look back to find the most expensive Israeli soccer transfers of all time.
Tai Baribo
In 2023, Baribo made the move to MLS, signing with the Philadelphia Union. The reported fee was around $1.5 million, which is one of the highest transfer fees the Union has ever paid for a player.
Omer Atzili
Throughout his career, Atzili has played for a variety of clubs, including stops in Spain and Greece. In 2023, he joined Al Ain in the UAE for a transfer fee of $2.1 million.
Maor Buzaglo
Now retired, Buzaglo was briefly the holder of the richest transfer deal for an Israeli player. After a couple of successful seasons on loan, Maccabi Tel Aviv paid $2.7 million to rival Maccabi Haifa for Buzaglo in 2008.
Dia Saba
Saba made history in 2020 when he joined Al-Nasr, making him the first Israeli player to play for a club in the UAE. At the time, it was a big deal for relations between the two countries. Al-Nasr also paid an impressive $2.9 million transfer fee for the midfielder.
Tal Ben Haim
On multiple occasions, Ben Haim has been sold for more than $1 million. First, there was his move from Hapoel Tel Aviv to Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2023 for close to $1.2 million. A few years later, Sparta Prague came calling for him, spending $3.1 million as a transfer fee for the winger.
Itay Shechter
During the prime of his career, Shechter was the type of player who warranted a seven-figure transfer fee. German club Kaiserslautern paid a little over $2.6 million in 2011 to bring Shechter to the Bundesliga from Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Daniel Peretz
When Peretz was sold to Bayern Munich, it wasn’t the most expensive deal involving an Israeli player, although it was arguably the most important. He became the first Israeli Jew to play at Bayern, which is one of the biggest clubs in the world. The transfer fee for Peretz paid by Bayern Munich to Maccabi Tel Aviv was around $5.4 million.
Oscar Gloukh
Gloukh is one of the best young Israeli players right now. He already has three international goals in a dozen appearances to his name. Somehow, Gloukh is already one of the most expensive players in Israel’s history. After coming up with Maccabi Tel Aviv, he moved to Austrian giant Red Bull Salzburg in 2023 for a transfer fee of close to $7.5 million. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him top that number one day.
Liel Abada
Abada has been a part of two huge transfer deals in his young career. In 2021, Scottish club Celtic paid $4.8 million to acquire him from Maccabi Petah Tikva. However, that number was topped in 2024 when Charlotte FC of MLS paid a fee of $8 million for Abada.
With Charlotte FC, Abada competes in North America’s top league, facing teams from both Mexico and Canada. Throughout North America, sports betting has taken off in recent years. That includes betting in Canada, where there is a large collection of trusted sports betting platforms.
Eran Zahavi
To date, Zahavi holds the record for the most expensive transfer fee paid for an Israeli player. It’s fitting for Israel’s former captain and all-time leading scorer. In 2016, Chinese club Guangzhou City paid $12.5 million to get Zahavi from Maccabi Tel Aviv. That record was nearly broken later that year when another Chinese club offered $20 million for Zahavi, who turned it down and stayed with Guangzhou City.