Now the war in Lebanon has ended and a ceasefire and hostage exchange announced – both before President Trump even enters the Oval Office – there is optimism for a future political horizon after Monday’s inauguration.
In January 2020, before leaving the White House, President Trump presented his Vision for Peace, the “deal of the century” which received support from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and was rejected by President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.
The main reason that Netanyahu probably accepted it, other than his desire not to go against Trump, was his certainty that the Palestinians would reject it, as they did. Since on January 20, 2025 President Trump returning to the White House, it is worthwhile to review Trump’s Vision and to determine if perhaps there is something there worth embracing.
We should recognise that the Trump Vision is essentially the adoption of the two states solution. While according to the plan, the Palestinian state isn’t much of a state, there is no real control over borders, there is no territorial integrity or contiguity, there is no real sovereignty, in short, it is understandable why the Palestinians rejected it.
Samer Sinijlawi
Nonetheless, the principle of two-states and Palestinian statehood is there and that is a step in the right direction. There is no one who understands the conflict who can imagine speedily going from the horrors of war to the implementation of the two states solution.
There must be a political program and regional and bi-lateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that will lead to a defined agreement of two states – Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace. To get there, there will have to be a full ceasefire, stabilisation, reconstruction, and new elections (in Palestine and in Israel).
Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Bahrain, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates sign papers during the Abraham Accords Signing Ceremony
If President Trump is serious about resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he will embrace the two states solution, because there is no other solution possible to this conflict.
In any renewed peace process in order for it to be acceptable and a genuine basis for reaching peace, the end-game has to appear from the outset, even if it will potentially take a number of years to reach it. We cannot repeat the open-ended nature of the Oslo process which had no stated end-game and allowed for negotiations to continue without end.
There is no one who understands the conflict who can imagine speedily going from the horrors of war to the implementation of the two states solution.
The final two states agreement does not have to be spelled out in detail from the outset, but the broad strokes of what the final agreement should be needs to be explicit and the process needs to lead to its completion. In that context, the Trump Vision could be the starting place for renewed negotiations. The proposed map of the Trump Vision includes Palestinian control over about 70 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza. No Israel settlement would be removed in this first phase, but no new settlements would be built.
It is essential though, that President Trump make it clear to the Israeli government that annexation by Israel of any part of the West Bank would not be acceptable and would have dire impact on the US-Israel relations and on the chance of peace.
During the following four years, the issue of permanent borders would need to be resolved, including the possibility of territorial swaps that enable Israeli settlers to remain under Israeli sovereignty in exchange for territory from within the State of Israel – equal in size to that which might be annexed to Israel from the West Bank.
There is no military solution to this conflict and this war really must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.
On the part of the Israelis and the Palestinians, all of this is predicated on the existence of two governments that are committed to a political process to resolve the conflict and not to manage it. Both governments need to declare from the very beginning that their intention is to create a reality of peace between both peoples.
It is also clear that in order to even begin thinking in the direction of a new peace process, there must rise a new generation of leaders in Israel and Palestine. The process of selecting those leaders should be democratic elections in both Israel and Palestine. Both peoples need to come to terms with the reality of seven million Israeli Jews and seven million Palestinian Arabs living between the River and the Sea, even after the horrific events of this past fifteen months.
There is no military solution to this conflict and this war really must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war. There must be legitimate leaders on both sides that represent their people and have the mandate to enter into negotiations.
The negotiating process would be best set in a regional context which would include direct bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and there would also be the overriding framework of negotiations in the regional setting which would include the process of developing more normalisation and diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia.
This is particularly important in the context of possibilities of normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia as partial fulfilment of the Arab Peace Initiative from 2002. The regional context is important because it is within the region that common interests and threats enable the development of a regional architecture for mutual security, stability, economic development and cross-boundary cooperation.
We, as Israelis and Palestinians should reach out the President Trump and express our preparedness to work with him and his team to help to end the war in Gaza and to begin working together on the fulfilment of a vision of peace between the two peoples that share this land.
Samer is a political activist advocating for Palestinian reforms and democracy
