A practical plan for peace in the Middle East

There will be no peace in the Middle East until the people of Palestine secure their unalienable right to life and liberty within a sovereign State of Palestine.

This is a right that Israel cannot deny or veto. It is a right that is enshrined in the UN Charter, many UN Security Council Resolutions, and the recent decision of the International Court of Justice in its ruling that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is a violation of international law.

The US says it is in favour of the two-state solution as long as it is negotiated by both parties. This is an obvious subterfuge.

Since Israel already has a state, and occupies Palestine, the US position in practice gives Israel a veto over Palestine’s rights.

People under a brutal and violent occupation have no power to negotiate with a violent occupier.  The Israeli Knesset recently voted against a State of Palestine just to make clear to the world that Israel is not at all interested in a just solution under international law. 

As the result of Israel’s militarism, the region is on the brink of collapse. The US pays lip service to peace while arming Israel to continue its genocidal campaigns.

A couple of days ago, Israel secured an $8.7 billion US aid package to support its ongoing war in Palestine and to open a new front in Lebanon.

With Israel’s current government led by fascists such as Bezalal Smotrich, the US position is a license for Israel to kill, displace, ethnically cleanse, and violently suppress the Palestinians, and now the Lebanese.   

During the past week, the Israeli indiscriminate bombing campaign in Lebanon killed thousands and displaced over one million from the South of Lebanon and Bekaa Valley.

In an unprecedented and reckless strike, Israel dropped 2,000-pound bombs, levelling entire neighbourhoods of Dahiyeh, to assassinate the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. The attacks continue on a daily basis with an Israeli ground invasion spreading terror and mass hysteria.

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The situation may seem utterly hopeless, but it is not.  The world is aghast at Israel’s violence and US complicity. 

The world cannot understand how the US Congress can give more than 50 standing ovations to Netanyahu whose indictment has been recommended by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. 

The fact is that the blank check that Biden, Blinken and others have given to Israel faces protest and revulsion inside the United States. The American people do not want to be complicit in genocide. 

The way out of the crisis is international law and diplomacy. The solution is at hand: the immediate implementation of a Palestinian state, backed by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, is the way to avoid a full-blown regional war.  

The political and peaceful solution was already presented by the Arab nations in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative of Beirut, whereby Arab states would enter into a peace agreement with Israel based on Israel’s full withdrawal from the Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese-occupied territories.

On September 27, Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaking on behalf of the Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries, confirmed the region’s willingness to guarantee Israel’s security and establish peace in the context of a two-state solution.

The UN Security Council has the authority, and the people of the region and the world, have the need, to secure the peace through international law.

There are no divergences in national interests among the P5 members of the UN Security Council regarding the two-state solution. The US, Britain, China, France, and Russia all share the same interest in regional peace. This is not a matter of great power politics.  This is a matter of international security and rule of law in which all five permanent members of the UN Security Council have a stake and responsibility. 

A seven-point path to peace

The UN General Assembly has already taken a major step forward in its recent resolution backing the ICJ and calling on the implementation of the ICJ ruling in the coming year. 

We must therefore immediately enter the phase of implementation of the State of Palestine as a safe, secure, and peace-loving UN member state. While Biden and Blinken will not act, the incoming US Administration, whichever it is, should abide by the overwhelming will of the global community for peace, which is also the US overwhelming interest. The Israel Lobby will continue to press for US isolation from world opinion, but the American people know better and will say no to the Israel lobby. 

A practical plan for 2025 would follow those steps:

First, in recognition of international law, and the recent UN General Assembly resolution, the UN Security Council should call on Israel to withdraw its military presence from all occupied territories in line with the ICJ ruling within one year, to be replaced by peacekeeping troops under UN authority.

Second, international peacekeepers should be deployed to protect both populations as disarmament is conducted, and as Israeli forces withdraw from Palestine.  All regional paramilitary forces will be obliged to stand down, and funding for them by outside countries will cease.  The UN Security Council would agree on the composition of the peacekeeping forces and oversee their deployment to ensure mutual security arrangements. 

Third, the State of Palestine should be admitted as the 194th UN Member State, to its rightful place among the community of free and sovereign nations, on the borders of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Fourth, the Palestinian Authority should propose a constitution and a national governance plan, in line with international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a commitment to hold national elections.

Fifth, under the leadership of the UN Security Council, the modalities of issues such as Israel’s illegal settlements, and possible mutually agreed land swaps between Palestine and Israel, will be established within a pre-defined time frame.

Sixth, as part of the establishment of the State of Palestine, a regional peace and normalisation deal would ensure mutual security and stability for neighbouring countries, ending all hostilities across the region.

Seventh, a Palestine Recovery and Sustainable Development Fund will be established with funds from the US, Israel, the Arab Nations, the European Union, the BRICS nations, and others, to rebuild Palestine and establish the infrastructure for its regional sustainable development.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is also President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development.

Follow him on LinkedIn: Jeffrey Sachs

Sybil Fares is the advisor on the Middle East and Africa at UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Follow her on LinkedIn: Sybil Fares

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.