"First of all, I want to express my thanks to Dore and to his entire staff for the three years of terrific collaboration and advice. Dore and I have spoken countless times about these issues, he's taught me a lot – I hope I've maybe taught him something, I don't know, for sure far less," with these words of praise, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman revealed, perhaps unwittingly, the identity of who the most important Israeli was in the drafting of the Trump administration's peace plan, the former diplomat and adviser Dore Gold.
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Friedman made those comments during a briefing last week at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs under the headline: The Trump Plan: The New American Approach
In his speech, the US envoy shed light on how the Trump plan came about, what principles and considerations guided its architects, and what the lessons of past plans taught them
Even though some like to dismiss Friedman as "the settlers' ambassador," it is clear from his comments that the Trump administration was keen on not being beholden to any particular party. Yes, Trump may be the most pro-Israel US president Israel has ever had, but he was not going to accept dictates.
Friedman, who as a private individual is indeed very supportive of the settlement enterprise, knew from the get-go that he would not let his personal views play a role in doing his job in the administration. "Regardless of whether the settlements are just or not, they are a fact that exists," he has often said. He has never seen his role as ambassador as a means to promote the settlements.
The Trump plan is based on realism, Friedman insisted throughout his speech.
"We start, we look at this issue with a great deal of humility, based upon the fact that we are not smart enough to know what's going to happen in this region tomorrow, a year from now, or 10 years from now," Friedman said. "In 2005, eight thousand Israelis who are living in the Gaza Strip, about as remote from central Israel as you can get, I've been to Israel at that point, I think, I don't know, maybe fifty times. I think I've been to Gush Katif once and those fifty times you would think if there's any place where you could easily evacuate eight thousand people it would be in Gaza. And it wasn't easy. It was the farthest thing from easy. I watched those videos of soldiers crying with the residents and the enormous strain it took upon the Israeli people. Why would we ever want to put Israel through that again? Especially on a level of a dimension far greater than ever happened in Gaza?"
Regarding the borders, the US team wanted to be realistic, and unlike what many have suggested, their point of reference was identical to that of previous administrations: that Israel should in principle withdraw from the territories it had captured.
At the briefing last week, Friedman made it clear that the peace team understood that Israel had to make major concessions.
"What we do accept is that there are several million people living in Judea and Samaria, who do not accept Israeli rule or claim not to accept Israeli rule, whose life is suboptimal given the challenges of security that exists and they deserve better ... But I would not underestimate the amount of courage it takes to put out a map of a Palestinian state. You know to those people who say well, you know, it's not big enough – it,s double the footprint, it,s double Gaza, it connects the two, and I can tell you plenty of people that saw this map on the Israeli side and when they first saw it, they gasped and asked what is that that you put there in the middle of Israel," Friedman said.
"We've also said that there needs to be a system of laws in place that protects human rights, freedom of religion, freedom of the press – to create a real democratic society. Why? Because at the end of the day, those are the only societies that last," he continued.
But the US peace team did not come to those conclusions on their own. Despite the many Jewish members on the team, most of them live in New York, and they don't live and breathe the complex reality of the Middle East.
That is why right at the start of the process, the peace team realized it had to use local experts.
One of them, as Friedman revealed, was Gold, who served as Israel's UN ambassador, Foreign Ministry director general and as a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for many years, and today he is the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Unlike the prevailing approach in the defense establishment and academia, in the JCPA, scholars have for years placed their focus on making sure that any peace deal would result in defensible borders for Israel.
Another focus, which has made Gold a world-renowned expert in his field, is Jerusalem. Gold's book, The Fight for Jerusalem discusses the effort undertaken by the Arab world to deny the ties of the Jewish people to their capital.
It has been translated into many languages, including Chinese. It became a bestseller in the United States, and every member of Congress received a copy.
Gold turned the battle over Jerusalem to the battle of his life. He has crisscrossed the world to explain what the consequences of dividing Jerusalem would be, not just on Israel but also for Christian holy sites. Several years ago he added a PowerPoint presentation to the book tour, and this is how the ties to the peace team were forged.
Even before Trump was elected, Gold, as the director general of the Foreign Ministry, made initial contact with Friedman, who was advising the future president on Israel during the campaign. He secretly met with Friedman and showed him the two flagship documents : Defensible Borders for Israel and the Fight for Jerusalem.
After Trump was elected and the peace team started working on the plan, the ties between the two became stronger. Only a handful of people close to Gold knew about the advice that he was dispensing to the administration. "He played a very important and significant role in this process and in one that I would say was irreplaceable. So Dore, you have mine and the United States' gratitude for all the work that you did," Friedman said at the briefing last week.
In March 2018, Gold appeared before lawmakers in the US Capitol and displayed his presentation on Jerusalem. The event generated interest in the capital and ultimately resulted in Gold being invited to the White House.
At the request of two of the architects of the peace plan, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, he arrived at their offices the very same day to give the same presentation. The meeting lasted 90 minutes and spawned a long and secret relationship between the two sides until the peace plan was finally revealed.
Gold would occasionally brief Netanyahu on the content of the talks he was holding with the administration and got a green light from the prime minister to continue.
"Most of the meetings were held in Israel, but quite a few were held at the White House," he said.
Gold even introduced the peace team to a former senior Israeli official who helped them on various matters. Gold won't give away the name of the officer, and even today he says he will not divulge more than a small fraction of what unfolded in his talks with the US officials over the past three years.
But even the little information he has provided Israel Hayom reveals a lot. As an expert on Wahhabism, the radical Islamic school of thought that has become dominant in Saudi Arabia, Gold told US officials that the focus on Jerusalem by Muslims is a consequence of "imitating Judaism."
Since the US peace team considers Saudi Arabia as one of the main players in implementing the peace plan, this was probably information that made their work easier
Gold further reveals that throughout the talks over the plan, there was the suggestion of placing the Mount of Olives under Palestinian sovereignty. "I told them that the Mount of Olives is not just an old Jewish cemetery but also a vibrant Christian site with great historical significance. Relinquishing that site could trigger widespread discontent among evangelical Christians, who are among Trump's most important voters," Gold said.
When you pore over the details of the plan, it,s clear that the key themes articulated by Gold and his team at the JCPA were incorporated into the tenets of the Vision for Peace.
The Trump plan focuses on an almost-forgotten paper called The Map of Israel's Interests.
In a departure from former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, who both offered an almost total withdrawal to the Green Line, the map of interests that was devised by the IDF in the 1990s offers the Palestinians much less territory. This is very much what Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had in mind: the Jordan Valley and its surrounding area are to be annexed to Israel, as well as critical points in Judea and Samaria.
"It was important for me to show them my approach, that security-critical areas had to be with Israeli sovereignty," Gold said. Judging from what emerged, Kushner and the others on the peace team accepted Gold's position in full.
Unlike other proposals, all the communities and security-critical zones are designated in the Trump plan as areas that are to come under full Israeli sovereignty.
"We presented the Americans with what most Israelis believe in," Gold said. "For example, they read the book Jerusalem: Delusions of Division by Israel Hayom columnist Nadav Shragai, which detailed the many dangers that the partition of the city would entail. It's not that they actually wanted to divide the city, but the book gave them the ammunition they needed and the rationale for why it would be problematic."
"I felt like the librarian who had to find the Americans the relevant material so that they could make decisions. But I also felt that I was carrying out an important job and fulfilling my duty to my country and people."
Even though he had the ability to influence the provisions of the plan, and even though its basic tenets match his worldview to a large degree, Gold makes it clear that not all of Israel's requests have been met.
He would have preferred that the plan gave the Palestinians less territory and he is less than thrilled about the prospect of establishing a Palestinians capital in the eastern part of Jerusalem.
"This plan comes with costs, but we look at the cost-benefit analysis. Would anyone have imagined such a plan being rolled out by an American administration several years ago? And a plan that endorses Israeli sovereignty on the Jordan Valley? I would have preferred if we got this for free, but we have to be realistic."
All other US peace plans were left on paper. Are you sure this plan will actually be implemented?
"I am 100% certain that the plan will be implemented because the overarching principle of this administration is to deliver on promises, and Trump has done so time and again. Israelis will have a hard time getting over the legacy left behind by the posture of other administrations, from [from former secretaries of states] James Baker to John Kerry. But I believe that we can trust the people in the administration. I don't think the implementation will be different than what has been laid out in the Vision for Peace.
Israel will extend sovereignty but a new US administration, in a year or in five years, may not recognize this. The what?
"That's a possibility that always exists, but I hope this is irreversible. In practice, a new reality will have been formed, one that will not be easily undone. President Dwight Eisenhower didn't undo President Harry Truman's recognition of Israel."
Ambassador Friedman said that Israel would not take steps to extend its sovereignty before the March 2 election, and so has Jared Kushner. Do you think that Israel might still do something before then?
"I think it is possible to take partial steps to apply sovereignty. The Americans will not go out against that if we do something in the near future."
