Anwar Sadat used to say America held 99% of the cards in the Arab-Israeli conflict. When the late Egyptian president joined the game, he won back every inch of the Sinai and secured a peace treaty with the Jewish state. The cards are still in America’s hands. Let’s play one more round.

America’s plan is premised on two facts: 1) The Middle East players hate each other, but they all long for America’s affections. Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia jostle to be the “prime” American ally; Syria wakes up wishing it were; Iran can hardly wait to make a deal. 2) These folks will never be able to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict on its own — and neither can Europe, China, or Russia.

So here is America’s take-it-or-leave-it proposition:

• Palestinian Arabs will have the contiguous territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, minus the big Jewish settlements already there, which will be traded for new lands and funds to build those lands up and add them to the Palestinian entity. The two parts of Arab Palestine will be connected with direct — nonstop — highways, pretty much as is the case now, minus the road blocks inside the West Bank.

• The Palestinian state will be demilitarized; its security forces restricted to policemen with hand weapons. Paramilitary organizations, including Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc., will become illegal. A process allowing these groups to hand over their weapons shall be implemented, enforced, and maintained by an armed contingent of 40,000 troops made up of Russian and European armies, to be stationed for a period of not less than five years in the West Bank and Gaza. The force will be under the European Union’s command, akin to models implemented by Europe in the former Yugoslavia.

• A rehabilitation aid fund will be created, ranging up to $250 billion for no more than 10 years. It will serve to naturalize Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendents in lieu of the right to return to Israel or Palestine. The fund will focus on the estimated 1.5 to 2 million now living in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. All Palestinian Arab refugee camps in those countries will be dismantled. The Arab governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will disburse 60% of this money. World powers, including China, Russia, the European Union, and America will contribute the balance. The fund will be exclusively administered by America as the official broker. Neither the United Nations nor any of its agencies will be allowed to participate. A new body of American experts, including national security agencies, will administer the program.

• Well over 50% of those funds will be directly disbursed to countries shouldering the impact of resettling those refugees, most particularly Lebanon. Monies will be tied to reconstruction, demilitarization, housing, education, and job creation. Again, this process is to be overseen strictly by America with particular attention to keeping the corrupt U.N.organizations away.

• Israel shall be explicitly and officially recognized by every member of the Arab League of States as a “Jewish state” at the grand signing to which all Middle East nations will commit, including Syria and Saudi Arabia. For its part, Israel will commit to allowing Palestinian Arabs to pursue life and commerce freely within their land, with Israel, and with their Arab neighbors. The new borders will eliminate expropriation of land, de facto. Israeli troops will neither be stationed nor enter Palestinian Arab territories.

• Israel will grant the Palestinian state a de jure presence in Jerusalem, akin to the Vatican’s presence in Rome, limited in space, symbolic in meaning, and not centered around the Grand Mosque, to avoid mixing religion and state. Again, this arrangement tracks current reality.

Syria’s land dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights is the subject of another, separate, accord but only after the Syrians participate in codifying the American proposal on Israel-Palestine.

America needs not lobby for its proposal nor engage in debate. It just needs to let those cards sit on that table along with an invitation to Annapolis for the signatures and kisses.

Among other benefits will be substituting cobwebs of so-called Arab-Israeli experts sitting now in think thanks, with some fresh, new blood and expertise on Islamofascism, China, Russia, and the issues that really matter.

ymibrahim@gmail.com