The Last of The PEIS Plan – Peace Needs You

Peace has been elusive between the Israelis and Palestinians. The PEIS Plan offers a path not taken that can bring peace to the two peoples. To be realized, peace needs you.

The PEIS Plan stands for the Palestinian-Egyptian-Israeli-Sinai peace plan. It proposes that Egyptians sell the insurgent-infected part of the Sinai Peninsula to the Palestinians and use the proceeds for its stalled economy. The Palestinians sell the West Bank to Israel and use the remittance to pay the Egyptians and combine its Sinai purchase with Gaza to create a New Palestine state. New Palestine also includes some historical sites in the West Bank as sovereign enclaves, such as the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem to be used as its cultural capital. The Israelis buy the West Bank from the Palestinians, except for the enclaves, and finally fulfill their yearning for the “Land of Israel” with Judea and Samaria fully recognized.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is frequently referred to as the world’s most intractable conflict. Over eight decades, a procession of solutions took the stage, stepped down in failure, and then returned with a slightly different tune for yet another failure. All these solutions, be they one-state or two-state, shared a common tenet: they sliced and diced the same contested West Bank. Both the Israelis and Palestinians want all the 2,170 sq mi of this territory for themselves. Even if one side were to yield, the resulting Palestinian state would be, at best, an abscess to the eyes of Israelis who would control the air space, ground access, and everything else in the name of security, and to most Palestinians, a vassal state curled inside the bowel of a smothering Israel. The West Bank has become the restrictive box that frames all failed solutions. The PEIS Plan goes out of the box by introducing a new land: the Sinai.

A book about the PEIS Plan (the PEIS book) was published in the fall of 2023. The book compares the PEIS Plan approach to the Family Pizza solution: “When parents see their two children fighting over a pizza, instead of letting them argue who should have which piece, they just buy another pizza.” The new “pizza” is the northern and eastern parts of the Sinai Peninsula that Egypt will sell to the Palestinians to create New Palestine – 50% bigger than Greater Israel and six times larger than the landlocked West Bank, and with two sea accesses: the Mediterranean Sea in the North and the Gulf of Aqaba in the South. This part of Sinai is referred to as the PEIS Sinai, with ample room for the Palestinian diaspora to return to the new homeland.

The PEIS Plan is, of course, more complex than buying another pizza. The 400-page book is a testament to the intricacies of the Plan, which was developed for the intractable Conflict. A few weeks after its publication, Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, and Oct 7, 2023, marked the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas War. The War is an offshoot of the Conflict, and by resolving the Conflict, the PEIS Plan can also end the War. A series of articles expands the scope of the Plan. First, there is an overview article. The PEIS Plan is a novel three-state solution involving an Egyptian, Palestinian, and Israeli cast of characters (the EPIc parties). Having all of them in agreement based on an overview is not likely. Thus, a number of “breakout room” articles address the “what’s in it for you” (WIIFY) to each party individually, without considering what the other parties think. The expectation is once all parties see their separate benefits, they will be amenable to an EPIc conference.

The first WIFFY article addresses the Israelis with the question: Do they want to buy the West Bank to fulfill the dream of Greater Israel, peace, and security but with a cost of many billions for decades to come? The second WIFFY article asks the Egyptians if they would like to take that multi-billion windfall to revive their mainland economy by trading away a troublesome piece of motherland. As for the Palestinians, there are two articles: Part I deals with the hopelessness of holding on to the West Bank, and Part II describes the hope of sovereignty, dignity, and prosperity of New Palestine if they let go of the West Bank.

This article concludes the series. While the previous articles addressed the EPIc parties, this article asks the readers for help towards peace. This peace solicitation now answers three questions: Is the PEIS Plan realizable, realistic, and how can it be realized?

Is The PEIS Plan Realizable?

This question explores any hard impediments that make the PEIS Plan infeasible, even if one likes it a lot. Consider geography: There are no physical impediments to redrawing the map of the Middle East as envisioned by the PEIS Plan. So, to the question of realizability from Mother Nature, the answer is a resounding YES.

There are no hard impediments from the EPIc parties, either. The Egyptians own the Sinai Peninsula; thus, there is no legal impediment if they decide to sell the PEIS Sinai. This WIFFY article shows how the Israelis can afford the West Bank and fund the PEIS Plan – there is no financial impediment if Israel decides to make the deal. Even the Palestinians are covered politically: Their 1988 Declaration of Independence described the State of Palestine as wherever the Palestinians would be, without mentioning the West Bank. In conclusion, to the question of realizability, the answer is also a YES from the EPIc parties.

Is The PEIS Plan Realistic?

Unlike the objectivity of realizability, realisticality is a matter of opinion. Some think it’s hot, some like it not, and your opinion is as good as mine.

The goal of the PEIS book and subsequent articles is not to convince the readers; it is to make them understand the PEIS Plan, and from that understanding, they convince themselves. For those who think the Plan is realistic, please go on to the next section on realizing it. For those who believe the Plan is unrealistic, the time you spend getting to know it is appreciated, and there is no expectation you will waste more of your time on it; however, there is one last request: Please pass it along. In the market of ideas, your opinion has the same respect as others, but it may not be everybody’s opinion. Somebody you pass along may see some merit in the Plan and will join the cohort who will do something about it.

The stakes cannot be higher. For eight decades, the Israelis get mightier and remain as insecure as ever; the Palestinian despair in the West Bank, as deep as it could be, is now surpassed by the desperation of Gazans looking for food and safe places; and the debt burden on the Egyptians is getting heavier after every economic crisis. The PEIS Plan may or may not be the panacea – there is no crystal ball on that, but one thing for sure is that none of the current solutions have worked, and continuing down these beaten paths will end up in yet another failure. The PEIS Plan offers a path not taken; the journey is uncertain, but the destination is clear: peace. Those among us who focus on the uncertainty of the journey may think the Plan as unrealistic; the best we can do is to mark the path to let others be aware of it. Those among us who fixate on the clarity of the destination will step on the marked path and see where it will lead us.

If the journey has a chance to lead to peace, it is worth a try; it would be the best gift ever from this generation to many to come.

How Can The PEIS Plan Be Realized?

The PEIS Plan will not be realized as described in the PEIS book and subsequent articles. If they ever come, agreements for peace and territory transfers will result from burning-the-midnight-oil negotiations between the EPIc parties, using the PEIS Plan as the starting framework. This is what the realization of the PEIS Plan means: not as written but as conducive to talks that can lead to permanent peace and ensuing prosperity in this war-weary and hardscrabble corner of the world.

Such talks are the realm of governments. For governments to talk peace based on the PEIS Plan framework, they must first be aware of the Plan. For them to be aware, we must approach them to present the Plan. However, we cannot just walk in and say, “Here’s the book, read it and start to talk peace.” Fortunately, the political class listens to the people – in democracies, it listens to secure the popular votes; in autocracies, it listens to suppress any populist ideas it does not like. The political class cannot listen to silence, so the people must speak up. For the people to speak up, they must be aware of the Plan. And this is what this concluding article solicits – a grassroots awareness.

Forward this article to your friends, family members, and acquaintances. If you like the Plan, add some supportive words. Discuss its good points and flaws. Post your thoughts on social media, and share posts that mention the PEIS Plan. Publish on your blog and submit fresh articles to traditional media. Update entries on the wiki encyclopedia you use. See if you can add the PEIS Plan to your activist platform. Write about the Plan in any venue available to you. Then contact your local politicians. Contact your local religious leaders. If you have access to institutions and organizations, let them know about the Plan. Contact anybody who has shown interest in the future of the EPIc region. You don’t need the PEIS book. The articles on the Times of Israel and the pages on the PEIS website may be all the support material you’ll need.

I have been doing some of the above stateside and recording it on the Correspondence section of the PEIS website. My motivation is more of an artistic bend because I created the Plan and am curious about how the world will receive it. If you live in an EPIc region, your motivation may be existential: If you don’t fight for peace, war will eventually find you. As long as nobody can prove that the PEIS Plan is not realizable (opinions do not count) and no better alternative is offered, I will continue my awareness campaign.

I hope you will join me.