Trump plan for an Israel-Palestinian settlement is most realistic in decades(Source New York Post)

President Trump just offered the most realistic plan in decades for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. It won’t work magic overnight, but it shifts the conversation in the right direction.

A long string of US presidents tried to solve all the problems of the Middle East by pushing Israel to sacrifice its security and even its identity as a Jewish state. By contrast, Team Trump has crafted an approach that would protect Israel while addressing Palestinians’ core demands.

Notably, this marks the first time Israel has put its support behind a plan for a Palestinian state with defined borders. It would double Palestinian territory and allow for a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, “where the United States will happily open an embassy,” the president said.

“No Palestinians or Israelis will be uprooted from their homes,” he noted, as Israel would get sovereignty over its major settlements in the West Bank but halt new construction for four years.

Palestinians would get a demilitarized state after meeting certain goals: instituting some measure of free speech and political reform, while ending terrorism and the “pay to slay” program that rewards the killing of Israelis. “Our vision will end the cycle of Palestinian dependence on charity and foreign aid,” Trump said as he promised $50 billion in international investment that he predicted would cut poverty in half and bring unemployment under 10 percent by creating a million Palestinian jobs in the next decade. It “presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security,” he said, reassuring those who had worried the administration would abandon US support for a Palestinian state.