On Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei responded to President Donald Trump's Israel-Palestine peace plan by calling on "all Muslim nations & the world of Islam" to engage in a jihad against "the Zionist enemy & the U.S." President Trump and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the "Deal of the Century," a two-state plan for peace between Israel and Palestine, on January 28. Palestinian leaders immediately rejected the plan and cut off ties with the U.S. and Israel.
Iran can't have peace between Israel and a peaceful Palestinian state. How would Iran wage war on Israel without launching pads in Gaza and Lebanon via compliant Arab terrorist group clients?
But past templates for deals have failed miserably. Perhaps we have to stop pretending that Israel hasn't won and that the peace deal must reflect that false reality of equals, as I noted in this data dump:
The Palestinians are angry at the US proposal for a two-state solution alongside Israel? One, they're always angry about something. And two, the deal might be something that Israel can just unilaterally do. This may be more about dumping the Palestinians as too much bother to govern. If the Palestinians reject the deal the only thing they might be rejecting practically speaking is $50 billion in aid, a UN seat, and cooperation with Israel to help make things better for the Palestinians. Is Iran going to bail the Palestinians out? Even if Iran under sanctions could afford that, are the Palestinians unaware of the way Arab deals with Iran work? (After I wrote this I see that Scott Adams recognized the same aspect of not requiring the Palestinians to carry this out.)
And have no doubt that the Iranian call to arms is also a shot at Saudi Arabia in an effort to wrest control of religious leadership in the Islamic world from the Saudis--and undermine exclusive Saudi control of Mecca and Medina holy places.
Consider this Khamenei response just a really big version of Iran's desire to fight its enemies to the last dead Arab.
