Trump's 'Peace Plan' Will Not Lead to Sustainable Peace

Historian Avi Shlaim presented his views on the prospects for peace, and the impediments to peace in Southwest Asia, in an interview with The Executive Intelligence Review's Harley Schlanger on November 21.

From the opening, when he described what changed his view on whether Israel's attacks on Gaza were a case of genocide, to his concluding warning that Netanyahu will not accept the existence of a Palestinian state, he presented a concise overview of what he believes is the underlying problem: That from the beginning, under the British Mandate, a Zionist state was established as a "settler colonial" movement, intitially under British protection, then under the USA after 1948. Unless this is addressed, there will be no peace,

He called the "Trump Peace Plan" a "very welcome initiative," but one which offers only "vague" provisions for the future. Instead, he described it as a "colonial plan to help Israel maintain permanent security control over Gaza."
The Messianic element of supporters of "Greater Israel", who dominate Israeli politics today, are "overtly racist" and supremacist. He described Netanyahu as not being a prisoner of their fanaticism, but "an extremist himself."

As for an alternative, he pointed to Yitzhak Rabin as one who was willing to talk to Palestinians about trading "Land for Peace," but his assassination shut down further discussion. On LaRouche's "Oasis Plan", he described it as "an imaginative idea, of economic cooperation leading to a political solution," but one blocked by Netanyahu.

Shlaim, a professor at Oxford University for many years, has written several books which provide an in-depth understanding of war and peace in the region, with The Iron Wall and his autobiography, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew recommended reading to better understand the dynamics of the region.