The Spirit of a True Peace Plan

A true peace plan should create peace first inside and then out, not outside and then in. As we find in the Kaddish prayer “He who makes peace in His Heights should make peace between us and upon all Yisrael.” Why do the Rabbis of the Talmud place “we”, i.e. societal peace, before “all Yisrael” i.e. national peace? One would have thought that if we achieve external and global peace, we would instantly have Heaven on Earth even in private matters. But the Rabbis are teaching us an important lesson. Only once societal peace is assured, then can world peace be sure to follow.

Using this lens let’s look at what would have happened at the societal level if the Oslo Accords would have been successful. The left would have rejoiced as the right wing mourned. Now let’s consider what if the right wing had succeeded with a Kahane type plan. The right would have rejoiced as the left wing mourned. In either scenario only one side wins and perforce the other side MUST lose.

This is akin to the battle for property in the West Bank. The extreme Left wishes to make the West Bank Jews homeless, while the extreme Right wishes to make the West Bank Arabs homeless (the kinder and gentler Israeli Initiative Peace Plan wishes them to relocate their homes to the Kingdom of Jordan, but as far as the Arab’s current homes go, it is similar in effect as the Kahane plan). In either scenario again we find only one side can win and perforce the other side MUST lose.

But this is why peace has been elusive in the Middle East. The truth path to peace is not an economic equation. Its calculus should not and cannot be determined in mere economic terms of victor and vanquished. Its methodology is rather found in compromise, and not in seeking absolute terms.

The Everyone Wins Peace Plan is such a true peace plan.

The right can rejoice that the Everyone Wins Peace Plan secures an end to terrorist armies within a stone's throw of Israeli cities, it allows settlers to keep their homes, it also maintains the State's control over all the land and resources West of the Jordan River, and it guarantees freedom of religion to non-Muslims.

The left can rejoice that the Everyone Wins Peace Plan maintains West Bank and Gaza Palestinian Arabic control of their cities and allows the retention of their homes, it also frees them short term from terrorist police and long term from refugee camps, and it eventually allows them to join their cousins within the Green Line by having a right to vote in the State of Israel.

Everyone will rejoice that the Everyone Wins Peace Plan will put an end to the unhealthy segregationist environment that both sides are currently caught up in. The Everyone Wins Peace Plan also removes the main pan-Arabic excuse to discriminate financially against the State of Israel. This will only snowball the effectiveness of the plan at ending the conflict that much sooner, as improved finances and security means increased Jewish immigration rates which allows the expansion of the Arabic naturalization process that is at the core of this solution.

“May He who makes peace in His Heights soon make peace between us and upon all Yisrael, and let us say Amen.”