My Middle East Peace Plan

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When I was in high school, Kay Davis, the best teacher I ever had at any level of my education, sat with me after class one day to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was only fourteen then, but she talked to me as if I might one day be in the position to do something about it. That was almost thirty years ago.  I never would have imagined back then that in the year 2020, the situation there would remain essentially the same. 

For my generation, solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was THE key to global stability. With the Cold War winding down, and China not yet having emerged, for those of us children of the 90s who dreamt of the ever-elusive idea of world peace, it had to start there. Over the years, I rolled my eyes at those who said the conflicts in the Middle East would rage on “until Jesus comes back”. There were a lot of smart people in the world. I expected it to be solved. By 2020, I figured we’d be dealing with territorial disputes on Mars. But eventually, I too came to doubt whether peace was possible as I saw one plan after another fall apart. I saw the basic essence of the problem, that to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one side or the other would have to make a tremendous sacrifice, and neither was willing to do it. 

The situation in Israel has fallen off of the front page in the last several years. With America’s wars in the Middle East wrapping up, and Iran seemingly more concerned at the moment with their proxy war against Saudi Arabia than with Israel, the news headlines have been dominated by other topics.  But the situation in Israel still remains one that requires a solution. Here is my proposal...

First we must step back and recognize that the creation of Israel was an extraordinary step undertaken during extraordinary times. In the wake of the horror of the Holocaust, and the worldwide devastation wrought by the second World War, I don’t think anyone really thought through the long-term consequences of placing a Jewish state in the midst of a sea of Muslim nations, most of which had been allied with the Nazis. This created an extraordinary problem, and extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions.  And that is exactly what I am proposing, an extraordinary solution that involves something never before attempted in human history. 

My plan rests upon the fact that the Palestinians are actually a fairly small group of people, about 5 million living in the West Bank and Gaza, and another few hundred thousand living in Israel. My plan first calls for The West Bank and Gaza Strip to become a part of Israel permanently, and for the Palestinians living there to accept relocation, but under better terms than they ever have been or will be offered. 

Every Palestinian residing in the Palestinian territories, and every Palestinian residing in Israel who chooses, will receive the following:

Citizenship in the country of their choice from amongst all nations that have cast UN votes for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Reasonable limits as a percentage of population will be placed for each country so that all the Palestinians cannot go to Luxembourg or Belize and take it over.

A one-time cash payment of US $100,000.

An annual cash payment of US $10,000 for life. 

A home of their choice in their new country of residence, up to US $100,000 or the price of the average home in that country, whichever is greater. 

Guaranteed employment in their new country. 

If you went around the world, I think you’d find hundreds of millions of people who would jump at this offer. I’d take it. But what I am proposing is not the scattering of the Palestinian people to the wind. Oh no, quite the contrary, I’m proposing to make them stronger: Palestine will become the world’s first virtual state. 

The Palestinian people will elect a president or prime minister who will be welcomed as an equal amongst the world’s heads of state. Palestine will have a full UN membership as an independent nation, with a full ambassador and will be able to establish embassies and consulates around the world. The Palestinian government will be able to issue passports to its citizens and they will have dual citizenship in the virtual Palestinian state and the nation they choose as their new home. Palestinians currently living outside of Israel or the Palestinian territories will be able to apply for Palestinian passports as well. 

Palestine will be able to establish a national bank and issue currency. Palestinians will not be required to pay national income taxes in their new country of residence. The virtual Palestinian government will have the right to levy taxes on its citizens.

So of course, the question everyone asks is, “who’s gonna pay for all this?”.  In 2018, the world spent US $1.9 TRILLION in military expenditures. A good portion of this spending relates to the military flare-up potential of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader Israeli-Arab conflict.  The total cost of the benefits that I am proposing to give to the Palestinian people to resolve this conflict that has gone on for more than half a century, is less than the world’s military expenditures for one year. And I don’t think there is any country in the world that can say they would not benefit from a solution to this long-running crisis. 

Furthermore, the Palestinian population is very young, so the benefits due to the Palestinian people can be spaced out over a few decades as those under 18 will receive their benefits when they reach the age of maturity. 

But the bottom line is, we get the money from the same place all money comes from: we print it!  We don’t even print it anymore, actually. The central banks electronically transfer it. When banks get a loan from the Federal Reserve Bank, or other central banks, that’s money being created. Because the world has created this problem, the costs of this peace plan will be paid by the world’s central banks, in proportion to their size, which will result in a global fractional devaluation of currency. We’ll all pay for it with a little inflation. But the peace dividend of being able to demilitarize the Middle East will more than pay for it in just a few years. 

One of the sticking points to a settlement has been the status of Jerusalem. Under my proposal, Jerusalem would remain a part of Israel, but part of this settlement would be that Israel agrees to maintain the Muslim holy sites in perpetuity, with residency permitted to the personnel needed to do this. Israel will agree that after a period of ten years, if Palestinians and the Muslim world uphold their part of the covenant (specifically the complete renunciation of terrorism), Israel will begin allowing Palestinians and other Muslims to visit the Islamic holy sites within Israel.  

I’ve talked about what to give the Palestinians. But there remains conflict between the West and the Muslim world, between Israel and its neighbors. What can the West give the Muslim world to make peace? The Islamic Dollar. 

Far too many Americans are unaware of the so-called “petrodollar” and the role it has in the US economy. In international commodities markets, oil is sold only for US dollars (except in Venezuela). That means, if a Chinese company wants to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, they must first buy US dollars to buy the oil with. If a German company wants to buy oil from Nigeria, they must buy US dollars. The effect of this could almost be described as the US collecting a small sales tax on virtually all the oil sold in the world.  This arrangement keeps the value of the dollar artificially high, and in effect makes oil cheaper for the US than for any other country. 

The petrodollar arrangement made some sense in the past as the US was by far the world’s largest consumer of oil, but it is time to let it go. It can’t last forever anyway, so we might as well sell high and really get something for it: peace. 

To make peace with the Islamic world, the US should give up the petrodollar and instead allow oil market sales to be made in a new currency, the Islamic Dollar. I do not propose to repeat the mistake made by the European Union and attempt to replace national currencies with one, in many nations with very different economies. The national currencies will remain, convertible to the new currency. The Islamic Dollar should be established as the world’s first national virtual currency.  The pricing of oil in local currencies will boost the economies of the Middle East, and promote development. 

Making this change overnight would be economically disruptive, so it should be phased in over a ten year period. The first year, 90% of oil sales in US dollars, 10% in Islamic Dollars. The second year, 80% US dollars and 20% Islamic dollars, and so on.  For the first ten years, the Islamic Dollar should benefit Palestine exclusively so that their new virtual state can build up a treasury. 

So, what does Israel give up in this deal? Nothing. I propose to give Israel everything they want.  I’m writing on “The Jewish MAT Girls Blog”, where I have come out of the closet as it were declaring my love of Jewish girls. So naturally, the criticism that I’m open to is that I am acting as a shill for “the Jews” in putting forth this proposal that indeed is, in the near term, extremely favorable to Israel. 

First of all, those who know me can tell you I have long been an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian cause and a harsh critic of the Israeli government’s handling of the situation. I remain an advocate for all suffering peoples and I firmly believe that in the long run, this arrangement would be of great benefit to the Palestinian people and the Islamic world. 

Furthermore, let’s be clear about the fact that Jewish people haven’t done me any favors. None of the great Jewish bosses I had have ever called me to ask if I needed a new opportunity.  I’m writing about my admiration for various Jewish people in Hollywood. My work has been circulating in that town for well over a decade and none of them have called me. I’ve been on one date with a Jewish girl and it was the worst date of my life. I’m starting to fear that my love of Jewish girls will be like all the other loves in my life—unrequited. I’m currently broke and homeless, and none of the excellent Jewish lawyers who are known as fighters for justice have helped me with my legal problems. So if I’m on “the Jews” payroll, I am UNDERPAID. 

I don’t know if Palestinians follow the NBA. I know a lot of Jews do. I believe this deal would be like the trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies in 2008 when they swapped brothers Pau and Marc Gasol. The Grizzlies were heavily criticized at the time for trading All-Star Pau Gasol for his not-yet-developed younger brother Marc. The Lakers had instant success with Pau, but as the years passed, Marc became a great player and it could even be argued that Memphis won the trade. By trading land for something that will be more valuable in a high-tech global future, the Palestinian people will position themselves to be global leaders in the next century and beyond.  

But even in the near term, I want to make the argument to the Palestinian people and the Muslim world that this is not the ultimate pro-zionist plan. First of all, this plan will put a LOT of pressure on Israel. I read enough Israeli media to know that many Israelis feel that their politicians use the Palestinian situation as a crutch to avoid dealing with other national issues. With that conflict out of the way, what will Israel do with this new found freedom, if Israeli politicians can no longer cite being “surrounded by enemies” as their reason for all domestic policy?

This plan will help the Palestinians in another way: no one in the West knows who you are. About the only thing any Westerner can tell you is that the Palestinians are in a territorial conflict with Israel. We don’t know anything about the culture of the Palestinian people. Yasser Arafat is probably the only Palestinian most Westerners can name...and probably less than half can name him. This is one of the things that has put the Palestinians at a tremendous disadvantage in this situation. 

This plan will give the world a chance to meet the people that have been at the center of global geopolitics for the last half century. It will also give Palestinians a chance to really embarrass Israelis. How?  Go out into the world and be excellent.  Let the world see the best side of who you are.  Make your neighborhoods special places in every city where you choose to live. Take advantage of every opportunity to impress the world, until people say, “I don’t understand. Why did Israel have all of you living in refugee camps?”. Sometimes all you have to do to vanquish an enemy is give them everything they want...in exchange for something that will be worth much more down the line. 

I’ve always found it remarkable that there is so much enmity between Jews and Muslims when their cultures are so alike in so many ways. I believe that, like so many conflicts, a large part of this is a misunderstanding. In their centuries-long exile from their home, the Jewish people incorporated into their culture bits and pieces borrowed from their stops along the way. So when the Jews returned to Israel, they brought with them many mores of Western culture that were familiar to Muslims as the ways of the aggressor nations that had been seeking to conquer the Middle East for more than two thousand years. With the creation of Israel having been backed by Great Britain and the United States, from the Muslim perspective, Jews returned as allies of the enemy. 

Settling this conflict will require more than political and economic maneuvers. It will require Jews and Muslims to remember their brotherhood. In order to commemorate this covenant of peace, I would propose the creation of a new joint Jewish-Muslim holiday, The Feast of Abraham, to celebrate the common origins of the two faiths and to mark the end of centuries of conflict. 

To make this plan work, it will also mean that the West has to change our attitude toward the Muslim world. We must accept that there are differences between our cultures, and as different as some of the cultural norms of the Muslim world may be, we must let them develop in their own way, as they must agree to let us in the West live our own way. In the Koran, it says that Allah will judge between the believers and non-believers. So let’s stop fighting one another, start working together where we can, and leave the judgment to Allah. 

This won’t mean world peace. We’ll still have things to fight about. Let’s just all agree its time to start fighting over new things, and to stop fighting in destructive and irresponsible ways. So people may say my proposal is unrealistic. What’s really unrealistic is believing that we can go on forever in a continuous state of conflict on this planet, with the power to destroy it all buried under the earth, beneath the sea, and constantly circling the sky, and nothing will ever go wrong. 

A plan like this could never work under the existing architecture of geopolitics. Countries sign treaties and back out after a new head of state is elected. This deal cannot be completed that way. To accomplish this, we must resurrect a concept familiar to Muslims and Jews, but perhaps unfamiliar to the ways of the Western world: the covenant. 

We need more covenants in this society. A covenant is an agreement that is above a contract or a treaty. A covenant is an agreement grounded in the spiritual realm, one that cannot be broken. This is quite a dramatic plan, one that takes advantage of technology to create a new possible option: a two-state solution without dividing Israel or any other country, but rather by allowing the Palestinians to be the first nation to fully enter the digital realm, as we all will one day. But by being there first, the Palestinians will be positioned to do exactly what the Jewish people have done—emerge from adversity to find prosperity. 

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