Executive Summary of the Elon Peace Plan

Introduction:

A regional solution based on geopolitical and economic logic can provide the Middle East with long‑term peace, prosperity and stability.

  • Expanding the solution to include both sides of the Jordan River creates a new reality in which:

  • Israelis and Palestinian Arabs can exist alongside one another in two genuine, sovereign states. 

  • A well‑defined natural border would be established, far from population centers. 

  • Both states would have strategic depth and ample land reserves. 

 The Plan offers:

  • An immediate permanent‑status settlement to end the conflict. 

  • Full and comprehensive rehabilitation of Palestinian refugees. 

  • The granting of national expression and full rights for all Palestinian Arabs. 

  • Removal of the threat to Israel's existence as a Jewish state. 

 Key principles: 

  • Immediate dissolution of the Palestinian Authority.

  • Israel will uproot the Palestinian terror infrastructure. All arms will be collected... and all the refugee camps will be dismantled.

  • Terrorists and their direct supporters will be deported. 

  • Israel, the United States and the international community will recognize the Kingdom of Jordan as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinians.

  • Jordan will once again recognize itself as the Palestinian nation‑state. 

  • Israeli sovereignty will be asserted over Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

  • The Arab residents of these areas will become citizens of the Palestinian state in Jordan.

 The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is in fact a Palestinian state:   

  • The Palestinian flag is the Jordanian flag.

  • After Jordan's invasion of Israel in 1948, it unilaterally annexed Judea and Samaria and granted citizenship to all its population, both residents and refugees.

  • It enacted a number of major constitutional amendments expressing Palestinian ‑Jordanian unity. 

  • For many years, the PLO competed with Jordan over who represents the Palestinian Arabs.

  What would Jordan gain from becoming part of the regional settlement? 

  • The current Jordanian regime is friendly to Israel and for the most part pro‑Western.  Jordan's principal problems are economic.

  • It (Jordan) could be significantly strengthened by Israel and the United States in the context of a regional "Marshall Plan" integrated with the rebuilding of Iraq.

  • A comprehensive, internationally funded development plan for Jordan, most of whose territory is undeveloped, would facilitate the absorption and naturalization of the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. 

  • The transfer to Jordan of significant portions of American military aid to the Middle East could significantly transform Jordan's economy.

 Assertion of sovereignty ‑ restoration of stability. 

  • The areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including the eastern part of Jerusalem, were part of the British mandate territory that was intended for the establishment of the Jewish homeland.

  • Since the end of the British mandate, these areas have not received any recognized legal status. They were annexed by Jordan after the War of Independence, but were never recognized as part of Jordan in international law. 

  Judea and Samaria ‑ the cradle of Jewish civilization 

  • Judea and Samaria represent the historical "spinal cord" of the land of Israel.

  • Jerusalem is surrounded on three sides by Judea and Samaria.

  • Whoever is concerned for the future of Jerusalem cannot allow it to become once again a border settlement in the heart of hostile Arab land.

 Dialogue between states.

  • When the two parties to discussions are sovereign nations, both are interested in stability and peace.

  • Israel is a true democracy, while the Hashemite Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy undergoing a process of democratization.

  • It ( Jordan) has one of the most progressive regimes in the Arab world, with a clearly pro‑Western orientation.

 The importance of resolving the refugee problem: 

  • The refugee problem in the Middle East has burgeoned into dangerous proportions, in sharp contrast with all other refugee populations from the 1940s, who were resettled and rehabilitated decades ago. 

  • From a few hundred thousand Arab refugees in 1948, Palestinian refugees now number in the millions, including second and third generations.

  • Their refugee status is... the result of many years of neglect and lack of desire on the part of the Arab world to rehabilitate them.

  • For many years the Arab world has done its best not to rehabilitate the refugees in order to undermine Israel's right to exist. 

  • An important ingredient in the resolution of the refugee issue is predicated on international insistence on the need to rehabilitate the refugees and the reallocation of American foreign defense aid to the absorption of refugees.

  • The State of Israel absorbed millions of Jewish refugees from all over the world and, within a few years, these refugees became citizens of the state with full rights.  

  • While the Jews displaced from Arab lands were rehabilitated and naturalized in Israel, the Arab countries refused to do the same for Arab refugees.

  • The resettlement of these refugees and their descendants will complete an historic circle of population exchange. This will result in the emergence of countries where the majority of their population shares a common nationality and culture.

  • Refugees from the War of Independence in 1948:  600,000‑700,000 Arabs from Israel, 860,000 Jews from Arab countries.