Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Middle East Abnormality


The state of Israel is a Middle East abnormality that the US helped give it a legal status through the UN. What is abnormal about Israel? The abnormal part is when you take a country, Palestine, that is under a mandate of a powerful nation, England, and sanction its ethnic cleansing and get a world body, the UN, to approve it. That is abnormal. If full membership of Palestine at the UN is accepted, then the road to Israel becoming "normal" would be open and yet the Israelis oppose it. Why?
The Palestinian Authority's (PA) upcoming request of the UN for statehood recognition of a Palestinian state based on June 4, 1967 borders would by one account be considered as a recognition by the Palestinian Authority of Israel, at the same said borders.
If recognition is what Israel wants out of the Palestinians, well, here it is and yet Israel and the US government, and some Europeans are fighting it. Apparently the 1967 borders do not serve Israel and the Americans always echo the Israelis.
If the Israelis wanted peace they could have accomplished it with the Palestinians after 1967. But they did not want to give up 1967 territories then and they do not want to give it up now.
UN resolutions for the right of return are in place. This is the core of the issue. If the Palestinians are willing to give up parts of Palestine, it would be for the right of return. It is not the other way around, the land was never Israeli before 1948, so any talk of Israeli concessions on land is just plain nonsense. However, the Israelis would not abide by these resolutions. Negotiations with the Israelis have added to the Palestinian losses. What the Palestinians want to lose are the refugee camps and the refugee status. They simply do not want to be "assimilated" by Arab countries as some Israelis suggest.
The upcoming US elections affects the Palestinian quest for freedom, but how? The situation plays into the hands of AIPAC as they manipulate the house and congress in ways to optimize the benefits in Israel's favor. They are positioning for a presidential candidate who can better serve Israeli interests with the US elections and candidate selection process underway. So with that in mind, decisions made on the UN-Palestine issue are affected by the dynamics of US elections. Again, it plays on appeasing the number one concern of American politicians, and that is Israel and the Jewish vote in the US elections.
For the PA and the Palestinians, going to the UN for recognition as a state might actually be more beneficial to the Israelis than the Palestinians. Again, by their request to be recognized at the 1967 borders the Palestinians recognize Israel and its 1967 borders and in return, as no good deed goes unpunished, get the US veto. But the Israelis seem to be holding out for more lands and settlements, water rights and whatever else they can impose on the Palestinians via so called "negotiations". So, what's a Palestinian to do in a lose-lose situation?
The Palestinians should think like the Israelis and negotiate in kind.  First, forget the UN, nothing good came out of it in favor of the Palestinians' homeland aspirations. No one or nation seems to be inclined to enforce any UN resolution pertaining to the return of Palestinian refugees, and the Israelis are hoping that in time these claims and rights would fizzle out. The only words the Palestinians should remember from the UN are "Partition" and "Refugees". And then for instance, they could declare Palestine, all of it, just saying, and show willingness to negotiate... negotiate how many Europeans, Russians and Americans would be allowed to remain as they are all considered illegal aliens who in most cases entered Palestine illegally, and certainly many of them are terrorists. The Jewish terror that was brought onto Palestinians is well documented, just "Google".
Absurd one might say and I agree...but, well, so was the idea of establishing the state of Israel in Palestine, a country under a British mandate then (1948), a mandate that was sanctioned by none other than the UN itself. And to go to the UN for recognition.. that, is more absurd.

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