With the Palestinian Authority all but certain to have its status at the United Nations upgraded this evening to nonmember observer state, some who call themselves friends of Israel as well as some prominent Israelis are applauding the initiative. In particular, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he does not oppose the move by his former negotiating partner, PA head Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert says the vote will promote a two-state solution and help Palestinian moderates in their quest to make peace with Israel. But Olmert, whose attempt to give Abbas pretty much everything he had asked for in 2008 resulted in the Palestinian fleeing the U.S.-sponsored talks without even responding to the offer of a state, seems more interested in vainly seeking to undermine his successor Benjamin Netanyahu than drawing conclusions from his own experience.
The show at the UN is about a number of things, but advancing the chances for peace between Israel and the Palestinians isn’t one of them.
The decision of most European countries to line up behind the PA seems to be based on the same reasoning put forward by Olmert. They think that after Hamas’s attention-getting terrorist missile offensive against Israel it is necessary for those who would prefer the PA to lead the Palestinians rather than the Islamists to give Abbas a shot in the arm. The win today in New York will give him that, but the vote shouldn’t be mistaken for anything that will advance peace. In fact, the whole point of the exercise is to help Abbas avoid being cornered into a negotiation like the one he abandoned with Olmert.
Understanding this requires observers to stop their myopic obsession with Israel and to focus on the real obstacle to a two-state solution: the inability of the PA to ever sign an accord that will accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state no matter where its borders are drawn.
Netanyahu’s critics consistently decry his lack of a long-term strategy for dealing with the Palestinians and achieving peace. In a sense they’re right, since the prime minister and most Israelis don’t believe peace is possible in the immediate or perhaps even the foreseeable future because of the PA’s refusal to negotiate or to contemplate the sort of compromises needed for an agreement.
But the PA can justly be accused of the same thing. Abbas has no long-term strategy, since he won’t or can’t make peace with even an Israeli leader like Olmert who was willing to make drastic concessions, and doesn’t want to return to fighting the Israelis as his predecessor Yasir Arafat did during the second intifada and as Hamas continues to do.
All Abbas can do is to hang on in the West Bank. His strategy is to avoid elections that he might lose to the increasingly popular Hamas while also evading peace talks with the Israelis while also seeking to maintain a security relationship with the Jewish state that keeps his corrupt and discredited regime in place.
The show at the UN is perfect for Abbas since it does nothing to hinder those objects, especially since the Israelis have wisely decided not to retaliate for his stunt.
The problem for the PA will come next year as a re-elected President Obama will likely attempt to revive a peace process that Abbas has spent the last four years dodging. By then, the UN vote will be just one more propaganda move that will heighten Israel’s diplomatic isolation but achieve nothing tangible for Palestinians. Meanwhile, Hamas continues to rule a real independent Palestinian state in all but name that makes Abbas’s Ramallah outfit look like Israeli puppets.
Those expecting today’s vote will do anything to advance the moribund talks are dreaming, and not just because the upgrade will make mischief for Israel in international forums. Peace talks are the last thing Abbas wants.
Obama can make an history reading the real meaning of the U.N. vote for non-voting right membership of the Palestine Authority. Without wasting any more time, he should dispatch President Clinton to the middle east instructing him to explain the real and serious fact to the Israeli leaders (ii) very short time left for Israel to make peace on right platform accepting Palestine on 1967 borders with some adjustment and transfer of population (iii) 20-40 billion dollar seeding fund to the new government (iii) accepting 500,000 refugees from the Arab countries; half in Palestine and half in Israel (iv) peaceful and very broad peace treaty with not only Palestine but all the Arab countries. Or President Clinton should tell them that; the civilized world will not allow Israel to continue the illegal, apartheid and barbaric occupation any more. Down the line, Israel will be totally isolated in that part of the world and nothing else will be left for Israel but to accept a single state solution under majority of fierce and militant Hamas and their goons.
No doubt Obama would love to do that. Good thing he won't get away with it. n nWhat of the 800K Jewish refuges from Arab lands? What are they, chopped liver? n nAnd who is going to read the "Palestinians" the riot act? Tell them that if they have a country, and launch attacks on a stronger country, they will lose their country? n nOr are you one of those who thinks they should never lose their country no matter what they do? If so, why so? n
John, apart from your general ignorance of history and of international law, you are diametrically misusing the words apartheid and barbaric, and are overlooking that these terms more properly describe the actions of the Palestine Authority — the former term at least figuratively, and the latter term literally. n nPerhaps that is why most people dismiss you as a crudley ignorant propagandist troll.
Ha ha ha ha ha! Bill Clinton may have been a bit of a cad and a fool over the Arabs, but he never wished for the destruction of Israel as The Big O most probably does and you definitely do. And a good thing your Messiah's a lame duck on a very short leash. n nGive an imaginary"Palestine" a "seeding fund"? The thugs running the circus have been "seeded" for half a century and just look what they accomplished. Maybe they need to find the ten billion Suha Arafat squirrelled away and the other billions all the Abu This and Abu Thats pocketted. n nAnd don't get all excited over another toothless General Rabble Assembly resolution, little man. It's painful to watch and a bit revolting. It'll be a bit of a pain in the buttress, more like an annoying itch, for a while, but not the time yet to celebrate the pogrom of all pogroms you and your buddies have been wet-dreaming about.
I only have one thing to say, that is for Isreal to be very careful what they do and sign because the UN is not their friend and never will be. I can't say why but those are the facts ! I have never seen so many anti semites in my entire life. I have yet to figure out whats with the rest of the world who have such hatred in their life. They must hate themselves as much, thats why they want to blow themselves up and leave this life !!!
The UN already voted in 1948 to divide the historic territory named by the Romans "Palestine"(the renamed "Land of the Jews"). So, why is the UN repeating this exercise? Pure stupidity.
The U.N. General Assembly voted in November of 1947 to RECOMMEND a division of Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs (Resolution 181). Remember, General Assembly resolutions are non-binding and therefore function only as recommendations. To become binding, Resolution 181 required the agreement of both affected parties, the Jews and the Arabs, since the Mandate for Palestine and the 1924 Anglo-American Convention had designated the land in Palestine for a Jewish homeland, and the rights of Jews there had been preserved by Article 80 of the U.N. Charter.
Not only isn't it about 'peace', it's not about a state and it's not about "Palestinians" either. It's about exterminating Jews. That's it, that's the alpha and the omega chapter and verse.
For the majority of people in the world it's a cheap feel good bleating about their concern for the Palestinians…they have no dog in this fight. All the more reason that the operative concept for Israel must be "never again." Never means just that, by whatever means necessary, IT SHALL NOT HAPPEN…neither the Holocaust itself nor the reliance on others to protect the Jewish people. Even if the Christian West meant well (in many cases, obviously not), good intentions cannot be relied upon…as Czechoslovakia discovered in 1937. I'm not Jewish but the logic is crystal clear to anyone who cares to see it: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. The fact is that Israel cannot afford to be fooled again. n nIf Israel does not feel secure, why would they be expected to concede anything in peace negotiations? And who is there that they can negotiate with that can guarantee lasting peace anyway?
We, not Mahmoud Abbas, are to blame for what occurred yesterday. Abbas looks out for his own people. We may not like him or the Palestinians he leads, but it is they who scored a victory yesterday in the UN, and it is we who are reviled and increasingly threatened in the world today. n nAs for the advice to try harder re: an effective media campaign, I'm afraid that isn't what's needed. Heroic action is. Israel cannot survive either because or in spite of "world opinion." Its survival depends on its people's courage, honor, bravery, and willingness to fight for their country—and that's all it depends on. The obsession with "world opinion" is simply just another way Jews have to avoid fighting for what we want. n nI'd go so far as to state, categorically and without hesitation or doubt, that our entire civilization is built on that principle: avoiding physical risk of any kind. How many American Jewish parents advise their children that it's their duty to help defend the United States? One percent? Less? How many teach their kids about honor, duty, courage, manliness? Look at what we've done to American kids: they think "duty" is about "doing community outreach." It should come as no surprise to us that this is so. n nFact is, most Jewish American adults are liberals who hold our nation's military in contempt, to one degree or another. And they teach their kids to "question everything," not because they are ethically committed to doing the right thing, but because they are looking for ways to ensure that the US will no longer be a country in which military service is even an option! And the children of these folks, far too often, turn out to be radicalized, enraged and focused on damaging America's institutions, damaging Israel (which is their worst nightmare, since most Jews there fight for their country!), and even damaging Western civilization itself. Their goal: to ensure there is nothing left to fight for. n nSimplistic? Or just too painful? Easier to "blame the Palestinians," no? n nIsrael was founded in order to provide a normal way of life for the Jewish people, a life that includes courage, bravery, honor and duty—the duty to defend one's land and fellow citizens from their enemies. No nation can endure without this as a core aspect of its moral nature. But the Diaspora cannot abide this, for any chance their sons or daughters might be asked to "fight" must be neutralized. Is it really so surprising that 68% of us voted for Obama and what he stands for? n nI submit that it would be far better to speak about those things, particularly in the pages and blogs of Commentary, than to continue the diarrheic analysis of "what Abbas really thinks. What occurred in the UN General Assembly yesterday was predictable and was something we Jews set in motion. We could have won our war with the Arabs long ago. Instead, we have chosen not to. Hard to blame Abbas, Obama or even the Hottentots for that existential error.