Israel Update for September 2011

The Nations Line Up

However the Security Council member states vote, most analysts expect the Palestinian Authority will end up taking its statehood bid to the over 190 countries represented in the General Assembly. In that much larger chamber, there is no doubt the PA will win overwhelming support, with only about sixty countries expected to either abstain or vote against the Abbas proposal. Still, a General Assembly resolution is far less weighty than a Security Council endorsement (actual statehood status at the UN can only be granted by the Security Council), which is less declarative and more legally binding. Nevertheless, a General Assembly vote of approval will at the very least give Abbas a moral victory, and also have several other effects the PA has been striving to achieve for several years.

For one thing, the PLO Fatah party which dominates the PA autonomy government, anticipates that the expected favorable General Assembly vote will strengthen its hand in the long and often bitter struggle with the rival Palestinian Hamas movement and other groups which strongly oppose the Oslo accord and the very idea of negotiating a 'two state solution' with the detested 'Zionist entity'. Having demanded the creation of a Palestinian state for many years (even if one that totally replaces Israel, not the result of peace talks with Jewish leaders), PA officials predict it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Hamas leaders to sit on their hands while Arab streets are erupting with jubilation over the expected General Assembly vote to endorse the Abbas statehood declaration. Hamas will have to either join the party or appear to be extremely out of step with Palestinian public opinion, say many observers.

The second PA goal is to give more weight to long-heard Palestinian claims that Israel is illegally occupying sovereign Palestinian territory, not controlling portions of disputed land that were not part of any legally recognized state (which of course is factually the case. Jordan's 1950 annexation of territory it captured after joining an Arab war of aggression against the nascent Jewish state in 1948 was only recognized by two countries; Great Britain, which created the state of Trans-Jordan out of thin air in 1922, and Pakistan, which was happy to join the UK after gaining independence from British-ruled India).

Always The Victim

To rapturous applause from most of the UN delegates, Abbas laid out his case for immediate statehood recognition on September 23rd. However in the opening statement of a speech characterized as hateful and inciting by many Israeli analysts, the PA leader uttered something that many analysts said underscored the absurd nature of the PA's position: 'The Question of Palestine is intricately linked with the United Nations via the resolutions adopted by its various organs and agencies and via the essential and lauded role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East - UNRWA - which embodies the international responsibility towards the plight of Palestine refugees, who are the victims of al-nakba (Arabic for 'the catastrophe') that occurred in 1948.'

What Abbas failed to note is that the United Nations already voted to establish an Arab state next to a Jewish state-on November 29, 1947. The resolution was welcomed by Jewish leaders like David Ben Gurion even though it only created a tiny Jewish state in a small portion of the land mandated to Great Britain by the League of Nations after World War I in order to establish a Jewish national homeland. Local Arab leaders, backed by almost all of their regional cousins, totally rejected the original UN 'Partition Plan' and went to war against the vastly outnumbered Jews, who nevertheless eventually won the war. It was in that context that the 'catastrophe' of Arab-Muslim defeat occurred, prompting many Arabs who would later call themselves Palestinians to flee their homes. It was local and regional Arab leaders who chose to attack and, they hoped, destroy the nascent Jewish state. That being a historical fact, why should the 'international community' bear a 'responsibility' to pour out hard earned tax money every year for over six decades to support the people who rejected the original UN partition vote and chose war over peace-and still often do today? This 'burden', carried mostly by the United States, the EU and Japan, is especially glaring given the vast Arab oil wealth that exists in the region.

The autocratic PLO leader then went on to repeat the same contentions of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, that Jews are foreign racist colonists who have no business living in their ancient ancestral homeland: 'Settlement activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestinian people and all of the brutality of aggression and racial discrimination against our people that this policy entails'. In other words, Jewish Israelis, like white South Africans, are cruel racists who have no right to build homes in territory they brutally occupy by military means. Several Israeli columnists wrote that the main problem with this long-espoused PLO contention is that the Jewish people, unlike white Europeans, have ancient ties to the land they are supposedly 'brutally occupying', which is in fact the undisputed centre of their sacred religion as practiced by Jews in Israel and around the world for over three millennia. Indeed, it is the Palestinians who are displaying unbridled racism by insisting that the UN approve a state that has already declared it will remove all Jews from their homes near to Judaism's holiest sites on earth in eastern Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus (the biblical Shechem) and elsewhere.

Netanyahu Responds

To no ones surprise, most General Assembly delegates had left the hall before Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gave his address a little over one hour later. This did not stop him from delivering a heartfelt response to the PA leader's remarks. Although many commentators also opined that it was clear from his words and stand that he is more than weary with the rubber-stamp anti-Israel world body, where he began his public career as Israel's ambassador in the early 1980s.

Netanyahu began his speech by alluding to the 1947 UN Partition Plan which the Arab world violently rejected: 'Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbours with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression. But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.'

The Israeli leader then went on to note that the UN is often 'a theatre of the absurd', noting that 'Gaddafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament. You might say, "that's the past". Well, here's what's happening now, right now, today. Hizbullah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security. You couldn't make this thing up.'

The Prime Minister then declared that Palestinian statehood cannot be achieved by a mere declaration in New York, but only through sincere negotiations with Israel: 'I didn't come here to win applause; I came here to speak the truth. The truth is Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn't let that happen'.

He Who Is Stronger Than The Nations?

As stated above, few analysts predict that the expected overwhelming UN General Assembly endorsement of the unilateral Palestinian Authority statehood declaration in the coming weeks will ultimately help resolve the long and bitter Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, just the opposite is being expressed by most Middle East pundits. In the meantime, the nations continue to offer new 'peace proposals', such as one put forward by the Quartet after the opening UN session which would strive to reach a final peace accord by the end of next year. Most Israeli analysts said the new proposal was no more likely to succeed than the many others that preceded it.

Meanwhile the PA has managed to take the world's attention away from Iran's ongoing nuclear development programme, ongoing gross human rights violations by the Syrian Assad regime, and other issues that are far more pressing and explosive than the long-established stalemate between the Palestinians and Israel. With Abbas again stating that the PA will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, it is clear to many that he and his comrades have once again chosen the ultimate path of war, with the likely outcome for them as it has always been before. Indeed, Israeli security forces are gearing up for a new round of conflict if the Security Council turns down the PA bid, possibly supported by Hizbullah, Hamas and other anti-Israel forces in the region.

In these dark and troubled times, it is good to declare anew with the ancient psalmist that 'The Lord reigns! He is clothed with majesty! The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength!' (Psalm 93:1).