History

The plan was originally proposed in 2002 by then-Israeli tourism minister Rabbi Binyamin Elon. It advocates the formal annexation of West Bank and Gaza by Israel, the Palestinians becoming citizens of Jordan, which would become a Palestinian state, with their final status to be negotiated. The Palestinian refugee camps would be dismantled, and the Palestinian refugees would be fully absorbed into their host countries. Elon and Moledet (Elon's party and the chief supporter of this plan) proposed that "Israel, the United States and the international community will allocate resources for the completion of the exchange of populations that began in 1948 and the full rehabilitation of the refugees and their absorption and naturalization in various countries".

Elon continued to advance his plan, including a 2004 visit to Jordan for this purpose,^[2] but did not manage to win substantial support for it.

General public support for Elon and his plan in Israel can be gleaned from his party's election results: the National Union received 5.5% support on the Israeli legislative election of 2003^[3] (which went up to 7.14% in the 2006 election after the party's merger with the National Religious Party^[4]).

The changing political climate in Israel following the 2006 Lebanon war and the Hamas takeover of the Gaza strip prompted Elon to resume advancing his plan in 2007, complete with a million-dollar advertising campaign, as "The Israeli Initiative – The Right Road for Peace". Similar in principle to his original proposition, this new formulation gave up on the idea of a Palestinian state being formed in Jordan; while it still has Israel annexing the West Bank, it proposes that the Palestinians would become citizens of Jordan and residents of Israel rather than being re-located (though it also advocates providing them with a financial incentive to leave of their own accord). This idea directly opposes the direction taken by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Kadima-Labor coalition, which aims to negotiate with the Palestinians with the ultimate goal of establishing a Palestinian state.

Pro arguments

The case presented by proponents of the plan^[5] is that Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and other moderate Arab states would all benefit from such a solution. Ideally, Israel could see a sharp drop in terrorist attacks and the dissipation of the demographic threat; Millions of Palestinians would turn from refugees to citizens and would be given new economical opportunities; and the abolition of the Palestinian state would prevent an extremist threat to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, while international financial support and increased co-operation with Israel would provide financial growth and opportunities (which, to a lesser degree, applies to other Arab states as well). Republican US Senator and former presidential candidate Sam Brownback has expressed support of the plan.^[6]

Counter arguments

In an essay titled "The Yamin [right-wing] Israel Plan", Prof. Paul Eidelberg wrote that "Even if [the Palestinians] were made Jordanian citizens, as proposed by the otherwise meritorious Elon Plan, it is wishful thinking to believe they will live in peace with the Jews in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza".^[7]

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Israeli–Palestinian peace process

Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs

List of Middle East peace proposals

International law and the Arab–Israeli conflict

web site

The Israeli Initiative – The Right Road to Peace

Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (PDF file)

Full text of the initiative

Official Site of the Moledet Party of Israel

- Article by Moshe Kohn, published 2001 on The Jerusalem Post

International Roots of Transfer Concept

Criticism of Elon's Plan

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