September 16, 2011, 3:40 AM
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If nothing else, the Palestinians' UN statehood gambit goes a long way towards revealing the deep-seated European and US pathologies that enable and prolong the Palestinian conflict with Israel.
In a nutshell, the Palestinian Authority - or Fatah - or PLO initiative of asking the UN Security Council and the General Assembly to upgrade its status to that of a sovereign UN member state or a sovereign non-UN member state is an act of diplomatic aggression.
Eighteen years ago this week, on September 13, 1993, the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel on the White House lawn.
There, the terror group committed itself to a peace process in which all disputes between Israel and the PLO - including the issue of Palestinian statehood - would be settled in the framework of bilateral negotiations.
The PA was established on the basis of this accord. The territory, money, arms and international legitimacy it has been given was due entirely to the PLO pledge to resolve the Palestinian conflict with Israel through bilateral negotiations.
By abandoning negotiations with Israel two years ago, and opting instead to achieve its nationalist aims outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel, the Palestinians are destroying the diplomatic edifice on which the entire concept of a peace process is based. They are announcing that they have no intention of living at peace with Israel. Rather they intend to move ahead at Israel's expense.
In truth, there is little new in the Palestinians' behavior. They have been using the UN to weaken Israel diplomatically since the early 1970s. Moreover, even if their bid does provide them with upgraded diplomatic status, it won't change the reality on the ground, nor are the Palestinians particularly interested in changing the situation on the ground.
As the PLO ambassador in Lebanon, Abdullah Abdullah, made clear in an interview Wednesday with Lebanon's Daily Star, in the event that the UN recognizes some form of Palestinian statehood at the UN, the new "State of Palestine" will still expect the UN to support the so-called Palestinian "refugees."
This is true, he said, even for the "refugees" who live in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. That is, the same UN that the Palestinians seek recognition of statehood from will be expected to provide relief to Palestinian "refugees" living inside "Palestine."
As he put it, "Even Palestinian refugees living in [refugee camps] inside the [Palestinian] state, they are still refugees. They will not be considered citizens."
So if nothing will change on the ground, why do the US and the EU care what the Palestinians do at the UN next week with their automatic General Assembly majority?
Why have the senior peace-processors of Washington and Europe descended on Jerusalem and Ramallah, begging and pleading with the Palestinians to cancel their plans?
Why have the Americans and the Europeans been pressuring Israel to make massive concessions to the Palestinians in order to convince them to put out the diplomatic fire there have set at the UN?
Why are the White House and the State Department telling the media that the US will consider it a major diplomatic embarrassment if the Palestinians go through with their threats? Why in short, do the Americans and the Europeans care about this?
THE PALESTINIANS have certainly never given either the Americans or the Europeans a good reason to support their cause. Just this week, the PLO representative in Washington told reporters that the future state of Palestine will ban Jews and homosexuals.
And yet, the Obama administration and the EU have made the establishment of a racist, homophobic Palestinian state the greatest aim of their policies in the Middle East.
Every single Palestinian leader from the supposedly moderate Fatah party has rejected Israel's right to exist and said that they will never set aside their demand that Israel accept millions of foreign-born Arabs - the so-called Palestinian "refugees" - as citizens. They say this with the full knowledge that this demand is nothing less than a demand for Israel's destruction.
And yet, both the US and the EU, which certainly do not support the destruction of Israel, insist that it is imperative to strengthen and support the supposedly moderate Fatah party which seeks the destruction of Israel.
Every year, the US and Europe transfer collectively approximately a billion dollars in various forms of aid to the Palestinian Authority and yet, the PA has failed to develop a market economy capable of supporting the Palestinians without foreign assistance. Instead, they have developed a welfare society where most economic activity stems from foreign handouts.
Rather than feel embarrassment at their failures, PA leaders use their economic corruption to continuously threaten their patrons. If aid is cut off, they say, the PA will disintegrate and the far more popular Hamas movement will take over, and then, woe of woes, the peace process will be destroyed.
Of course, Hamas is also sustained by Western aid money. Every month, the same PA that warns of the dangers of a rising Hamas transfers tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza to pay salaries of Hamas "government" employees.
Yet despite its mafia economy, and its exploitation of their aid funds to support a terrorist organization, the US and EU insist on maintaining the PA's status as the largest per capita foreign aid recipient in human history. And they do so even as the Eurozone is on the brink of collapse and the US is descending rapidly into a new recession.
Finally, in the interest of maintaining the peace process, aside from periodic pro forma statements, the US and the EU have turned blind eyes to the PA's routine and institutional glorification of terrorist mass murderers and Nazi-style anti-Semitic indoctrination and incitement of Palestinian society.
Given their absolute commitment to the so-called peace process, it would be reasonable to expect the US and the EU to oppose the Palestinians' decision to move their conflict with Israel from the negotiating table to the UN.
After all, in acting as they are, the Palestinians are making clear that they are abandoning the sacrosanct peace process.
Alas, this is not the case.
The Obama administration is engaging in desperate eleventh hour diplomacy to convince the Palestinians to cancel their UN plan, because it does not wish to oppose it. Most EU member states are expected to support the Palestinian bid at both the Security Council and the General Assembly.
The fact that the US and the EU are reluctant to oppose the Palestinian UN initiative, despite the fact that it destroys the foundations of the peace process, tells us two things about the Americans and the Europeans. First, their support for the Palestinians has more in common with a psychological obsession than with a rational policy decision.
The Obama administration, the EU bureaucracy and most EU member states are obsessed with the Palestinians. There is nothing the Palestinians can say or do to convince them that the Palestinian case is anything other than wholly and completely just.
There are many possible explanations for how they arrived at this obsession. But the fact is that it is an obsession. Like all obsessions, their faith in the justice of the Palestinian cause is impermeable to contrary facts or rational interests.
The flip side of this obsession is, of course, a complementary obsession with blaming Israel for everything that goes wrong. For if the Palestinians are always in the right, and they are fighting Israel, then it naturally follows that Israel is always in the wrong.
This "Blame Israel First" mindset was exposed in all its madness in a New York Times editorial on Thursday.
Despite the Palestinians' refusal to negotiate with Israel, despite Fatah's unity-government deal with Hamas, and despite their rejection of Israel's right to exist, the Times argued that Israel is to blame for the current crisis in relations.
In the paper's view, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "has been the most intractable" party to the conflict. Netanyahu's crime? He has permitted Jews in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem to exercise their property rights and build on land they own.
Of course, that is not how the Times put it. In the Times' words, Netanyahu has been "building settlements."
Intrinsic to the Times' claim, (and to the Obama administration's EU-supported demand that Israel disregard Jewish property rights in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria), is an embrace of the Palestinians' bigoted position that Jews must be banned from the future Palestinian state.
That is, like the administration and the EU, the Times' support for the "just Palestinian cause" is so comprehensive that its editors never even question whether it is reasonable for them to be completely committed to the establishment of a racist state. It is this inability to consider the significance of their actions that removes Western support for the Palestinians from the realm of policy and into the sphere of neurosis.
The second lesson of the US and European unwillingness to oppose the Palestinians' UN statehood bid is that the Obama administration and the EU alike are obsessed with getting on the right side of inherently anti-Western international institutions.
Here, too, the reason that the position is an obsession rather than a considered policy is because no conceivable rational US or European interest is advanced by strengthening the UN and similar bodies.
Administration officials have repeatedly said that they do not wish to veto a Palestinian statehood resolution at the Security Council because they do not want to isolate the US at the UN. It is due to their aversion to isolation that the administration has worked so intensively in recent weeks to convince the Palestinians to cancel their UN plans, by pressuring Israel to give them massive concessions.
It never seems to have occurred to anyone at the White House that standing alone at the UN more often than not means standing up for US interests, and that standing with the crowd involves sacrificing US interests.
As for the EU, their automatic support of the UN is somewhat more reasonable. Although the UN majority systematically empowers states and forces that are hostile to Europe, many EU member states share the UN majority's anti-Israel and anti-American positions. So by voting with the majority, EU member states are able to act on their prejudices without having to own up to them. Moreover, many EU states have irredentist Islamic minorities. Joining the Israel-bashers at the UN is a low-cost way to appease them.
On Thursday, Netanyahu announced that he will address the UN General Assembly in New York next week and put the truth about the Palestinian cause on the table.
Perhaps someone will be moved by his words.
Perhaps not.
But whether he makes a difference or not, at least reason will have one defender at the UN next week.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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"Every year, the US and Europe transfer collectively approximately a billion dollars in various forms of aid to the Palestinian Authority[....] Of course, Hamas is also sustained by Western aid money." A lethal mixture of cynicism and zombiism in them makes it a waste of effort to talk to current leaders of the west (one'll have to wait for another Reagan, or Thatcher, or Churchill, and in today's climate with today's media who knows how long that'll take!), but the people of the States and Europe should be constantly bombarded with reminders of how their hard-earned and diminishing money is used by their elected politicians to line the coffers of the PA and Hamas and to arm terrorists. Western populations must be made aware that their money buys explosives the PA and Hamas wrap around children of their poorest so they blow up both themselves and the Jews, and know that's where money usurped from their own children is going. If anything can buck the trend, it's guilty conscience together with being robbed of your legitimate earnings.
One constant in this long Islamic,UN,US,EU war against Israel by the phony peace process is that it is always Israel that is pressured to move (never the destroyers of Israel) and always in a direction that is a threat to it's survival.
This is where Israel is dead wrong and extremely naive,utterly deceived ;
The intentions of your 'friend' is evil and you refuse to see this reality staring you in the face.
'And yet, both the US and the EU, which certainly do not support the destruction of Israel, insist that it is imperative to strengthen and support the supposedly moderate Fatah party which seeks the destruction of Israel.'
The 'boiling the frog' in the waters of a Trojan peace is just different approach to erasing Israel than Amadinejad's but even more effective as the Jews are instrumental in their own national suicide.
Israel see's what has been going on for decades and still goes along because they would rather please men than God.
That and fear of man are the sin of Israel.
This phony peace process was always doomed to fail from day 1 because Israel left God's unchanged command to Israel out of the peace process.
'You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me.'
Exodus 23
Will you ever learn ?
His word stands and Israel suffers for ignoring it and him.
The upcoming attempt by the Palestinians to push through their bid for statehood at the UN next week gives both the US and the EU the opportunity they have been seeking for some time now and especially since Obama took office. It is the chance to finally trash Israel and the Jews all in the name of freedom for the poor oppressed Palestinians. The fact that they have Jewish supporters makes this act all the more horrendous. Netanyahu must stand firm when he speaks before the UN. This move by the Palestinians must be stopped, but there must be no concessions on the part of Israel I fear the consequences will be dire, but to concede means we lose. HaShem is our protector and we must trust in Him. May HaShem bless you Caroline and the entire Klal Yisrael. Shabbat shalom.
You forgot to mention that the Israeli government is playing along with this BS.
Why aren't we demanding that aid to the PA be cut off? Why is the Netanyahu gov't. continuing the charade of wanting negotiations leading to a Palestinian state?
Why haven't we stopped the transfer of funds to the PA? What about annexing Area C, parts of Area B, & the Jordan Valley?
This is a wonderful article, added to your many fine posts.
My only discomfort is the reference to "Americans" rather than a more specific, this administration, an individual, group, or the like. Far and away, it is not Americans as a whole. In my opinion, Americans and those who are pro-America, are greatly aligned with your views.
Along with so many, I look forward to Mr. Netanyahu's words of wisdom and to your next article.
What is the source of the Palestinian Obsession? In the eyes of Muslims, Palestinian Nationalism is simply a tool to implement Islam's universal policy of obliterating non-Muslim cultures where ever Muslims can do so. And anyone or any country who wishes to get along with Muslims or Muslim countries must accept this ongoing historical process.
But Europeans and their descendents are capable of supporting Palestinian Nationalism without the Islamic imperative. The source of European sympathy for Palestinian Nationalism has to do with the Catholic instinct to isolate Jews in ghettos. And this is what Israel is supposed to be for these sympathizers, a ghetto. Jewish claims to a Jewish state are to be only adornments fitted to Jews to further excite Catholic lust for humiliation and abuse. It is a necessary state for Jewish ghettos that they be subject to constant violations of life, liberty and personal property. As long as Israel agrees to internalize this process, then it earns the respect of the "international community". If Muslims do all the heavy lifting in imposing a ghetto mind set on Israelis, then all the easier it is to ignore their own sadistic instincts.
But Jews are not the only peoples to be isolated in ghettos. Anyone skeptical of the Islamo-Catholic global order is a second class global citizen. Where a country is weak, then so should that country be a second class subject. Where its citizens are weak, then so also should those citizens be second class citizens and even non-citizens should be elevated above them.
Look to the former Yugoslavia for the perfect example of this ghettoization where the subjects here are not Jews, but Serbs.
Caroline wrote:
"Moreover, even if their bid does provide them with upgraded diplomatic status, it won't change the reality on the ground, nor are the Palestinians particularly interested in changing the situation on the ground."
Caroline, I agree with almost everything you write (although at times I wish you were a bit more aggressive and nationalistic, but hey, I guess I can get that from Yaalon, Lieberman & Feiglin). However, I must say that the quote above is definitely the most naive statement I've seen from you. And I fear that quote represents a majority view among Israelis right now, unfortunately (although many probably utter it with their fingers crossed behind their backs and a forced smile on their faces).
It seems clear as day that the tsunami awaiting Israel as a result of a "yes" vote at the UN on behalf of a Pal state is not simply a diplomatic one, but it is also most importantly, even existentially, a military one.
Has anyone in Israel been watching the US and Europe this past couple decades? Anyone? What do they invariably accomplish prior to setting in motion military action? Yes, that's right, they obtain so-called moral authority through UN resolutions. As night follows day, so military action follows certain types of UN resolutions. And I can say with certainty that this statehood bid by the PA is one of those instances.
Are we talking about the US & Europe here? No, we are not. We are talking about Turkey, with Iran in its footsteps. Erdogan is the most ruthlessly cunning and aggressive politician in the world today, and that's saying a lot because he has a lot of competition. He spearheaded a quiet revolution in Turkey, overthrowing a secular military government which had held sway for 80 years. That's no mean feat. And he did it in such a way that never once did he arouse the ire of the West or even Israel for that matter. An outstanding lesson in realpolitik if there ever was one. Erdogan is coming for Israel next and just as with the TKS & CHP in Turkey he will show no mercy and he will not delay. It will be swift and it will be ruthless.
You see, Erdogan badly wanted the Palmer report in his favor as a ticket to underwrite his attack on Israel. He did not get it. However, he has an even bigger ticket awaiting him: the UN bid for statehood by the PA. This is why he just guaranteed the PA and Hamas that any shortfall they experience, whether financial or otherwise, as a result of statehood, will be made up by Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. This is what caused Abbas to flip-flop overnight from the US-influenced decision to back down and return to his original plans to seek statehood. Turkey has become the prime mover here, and anyone who doesn't keep their eyes on Erdogan lacks understanding.
Just as the West has so poignantly taught him through their own use of UN resolutions, Erdogan will use the UN resolution for Pal statehood to claim a moral authority to prepare for war against Israel. There is no way Israel will agree to and comply with the resolution, and he knows this. As a result, you can see the war preparations already beginning with the Turkish naval movements in the Med. Where the Palmer report failed him, he will find succor in the UN resolution. You can count on it. And he doesn't want compromise with Israel...he wants Israel gone. All you have to do is look at what happened to the TSK in Turkey to understand that he will not stop short of total victory and removal of his adversaries.
To my Jewish friends: now is the time to stop seeking refuge in resolutions, subway billboards, editorials, saber rattling, the US, Europe, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Netanyahu, or anyone/anything else other than the One who made you a nation in the first place. That wasn't the UN, it was the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob who made you a nation at Mt. Sinai. Do you really believe it is some sort of coincidence that overnight you find yourselves having lost almost every "ally" and staring down the barrel of a Turkish & Iranian gun? Just as in '48, '67 and '73 you will also find the US backing away from helping when the time comes. You will be all alone...again. Except this time the enemies are more numerous, more ruthless and far, far more powerful than ever before. Every friend, every ally, every crutch will be removed very soon and you will have no choice to turn back to the God of Israel as there won't be anyone left standing on your side.
Please pull your heads out of the sand. Not only will the facts on the ground change, they will change forever. And sooner than you think.
'Erdogan is coming for Israel next and just as with the TKS & CHP in Turkey he will show no mercy and he will not delay. It will be swift and it will be ruthless.'
Turkey will not come alone and this is why the coming war will be nuclear.
It will be the only way for Israel to respond to an overwhelming ISLAMIC attack.
The US led Road Map has had the desired effect of weakening Israel by constant restraint and endless goodwill gestures to an enemy undeserving of any.
Smile is blind,STUPID or devious because it is the U.S. which got Israel to do what no other nation could.
In succession from Carter to Bush 1 to Clinton to the devious snake Bush 2 and now evil Obama.
The 'Smiles' are powerless to do anything for Israel of substance but mouth support,they can't even get Pollard released so their 'support' is empty talk.
Israel has always had a weak spot for her smiling and friendly destroyer.
God has removed every idol Israel has leaned on to get their stubborn attention.
It seems to me that the arabs learned well at the side of Arafat...say one thing for the West, even sign a treaty, but knowing that it's with a dhimmi, an infidel, there's no obligation to keep it, and in fact, it's to your credit and status to turn around and speak or do the opposite. And that brings up the US and Europe: why in the world do they continue to enjoy being screwed by the arabs in Gaza and the W Bank? As for the arabs, they know a good thing-why stop shearing the sheep when they are so plentiful? For anybody to blame Israel for a failure of peace is not only irrational but outright viciousness. Parts of the US gov't, Europe, and the "Left" are complicit in this.
thee is no such thing as a "palestinian" ...that's why we must correctly call them "fakestinians".
read "from time immemorial" by joan peters.
google: "hadrian's curse" and read how the arabs themselves admit to the ruse of a "palestinian" identity only to delegitimize israel.
the land of israel for the people of israel
annex yesha (judea/samaria/'azza) now!!!!!
May I offer a Biblical perspective to what is happening right now ?
It is clear that the "Nations" (the UN) are setting themselves against Israel. One day, in the not too distant future all nations will be gathered against Israel, and she will be utterly isolated
Things will get much much worse, but then they will get much much better.
Why does the God of Israel allow this ? Because he wants the people of Israel to have no hope but Him, no help but Him, no alternative to Him. Until this point is reached, Israel will become more and more isolated.
There is no human, political, humanitarian, or fair solution to this problem. The God of Israel is totally in charge of the situation. He is your biggest troublemaker
He is a jealous God who desires the love and commitment of Israel. He will deliver, but only when Israel has no other alternative but to call on His name. Then Israel will see the salvation of its God
I think Caroline that you express the injustice as well as anyone. But without the Biblical dimension your situation is hopeless
Following the automatic majority at the General assembly voting the palestinian state, there must be a neat declaration by Israel that the palestinian authority has violated and renouced to the oslo agreements and to the peace process, and that the Palestinian authority must be qualified as an " hostile organization " exactly like hamas, hizbollah etc... The Israeli declaration MUST BE FOLLOWED by facts on the ground like moving forward the barrier of separation to control all the spots we needs to reinforce our security. Economically , the refund of VAT must be stopped.Teh furniture of electricity by Israel must be shut. Any violence will be met by more severe israeli reaction. On the turkish-iranian front, the naval war is looming closer and the pre-emptive israeli action is of utmost necessity.
I see there is some disagreement among the commenters about the support of Americans. For sure, administrations have either tried to play both sides or worse. But many, many of the American people have always been with you. Things may change officially by next election. There are also grassroots changes which have been building for a number of years by people who are fed up with islam. I know that does not help your immediate concerns, but know you have support in the heartland.
EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ
The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer
Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on
Jan. 15 2008. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the
message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.
IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30
EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ
By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez
I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a
terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million
Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we
burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the
chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and
wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life:
science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience
of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove
to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened
our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and
ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and
poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families
with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish
cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.
Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government,
they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical
hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for
backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and
their talent for a better future for their children, their
determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who
pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for
themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they
imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to
themselves.
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its
school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which
claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is
a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how
easily each country is giving in to it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, 6
million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900
Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten,
experimented on and humiliated.' Now, more than ever, with Iran ,
among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is
imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in
the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.
How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade
Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United
States ?
Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass
this along. Wake up America before it's too late!!!!!!!!
My fathers people are from Lebanon and Syria, I am very ashamed of these people and have been for years.
How can anyone have any respect for a people in this case the PLO, that teach children to kill and hate. Am I missing something?
These clowns dressed in their sudo-KKK costumes should be taken out and whipped.
I hope I am not being too simplistic here.. but the way I see it, is that the evil of hatred and extreme intolerance, not just from Hamas, and the P.A. and all the other arab islamic muslims, outside the PA and Hamas, but from the American and European far left Liberals, are related to, and with, the political corruption of the money and power, that it brings,, which is why the PA and especially Hamas, which are now one in the same, do not want a prosperous economic society, where the people are happy, and successful.. as this would confirm Israels positions.. they only want the arab people, the Palestinians, to always be under the monetary control of the those in power, aka, the P.A., so they can always claim victimization at the hands of the Israeli's.. thus, gives the arab islamic muslims- the palestinians, their constant perpetual money supply, from the very nations and people, the US and Europe, they despise and want to eventually destroy.. for which, their only and ultimate goal, is the final destruction and annihilation of Israel, and every Jewish person of Race, let alone all of the other so called undesirable zionists, on the face of the planet.. and that includes America, and Europe, which is so ironic.. now isn't it..
But the far left in America and Europe, as well as the rest of the world, do not see, nor do they care, as their is a political ideological indoctrination blindness, like a cancer, will destroy them from the inside out.. if the Right, does not counter and stop them, from their own self-destructive stupidity, which can like dominoes, affect the rest of the Civilized Western Free world, which Israel, is at the heart of, Ironically, the only Democracy of Freedom, and Liberty, in a sea of tyrannical oppressive regimes and terrorists, aka, evil.