[Published January 2009]
Concern for Gaza’s civilian population has engendered a wave of demonstrations around the world over the past few days as Israel’s army enters Gaza to try and effectively end the incessant barrage of rockets and mortars that have been fired indiscriminately into Israel’s population centres by Hamas for the last eight years.
Significantly missing from those demonstrations were any signs demanding “Hamas Out”.
There were plenty of banners saying “Free Palestine” but not one saying “Free Gaza”, “Hamas End Occupation” or “Hamas Handover To Abbas”.
Even Israel has stated its current incursion into Gaza is not designed to bring about regime change. One would hope the attainment of this objective has not really been foregone but remains the ultimate- but as yet unexpressed - goal to be achieved.
Mahmoud Abbas and every spokesman for the Palestinian Authority - thrown out of Gaza by Hamas eighteen months ago and locked in a bitter internecine struggle with Hamas for political control of Gaza ever since then - have not called on Hamas to leave Gaza to end the suffering of Gaza’s population.
No world leader has taken the frequent opportunities afforded by CNN, Fox or the BBC to call for Hamas to be removed from Gaza.
Indeed there has not been one demonstration by Gaza’s civilian population calling on Hamas to end its rocket and mortar attacks on Israel to end the insufferable horrors that are now occurring in Gaza.
Hamas has entrenched its armed forces and its rocket and mortar stocks in civilian population centres. Hamas knows full well the inevitability of heavy Gazan civilian casualties being sustained as Israel seeks to root out and destroy Hamas fighters located there - virtually ensuring the intensity of these world-wide demonstrations increasing as those Gazan civilian casualties continue to climb.
All demonstrations and current calls from world leaders instead only demand an immediate cease fire – not the ouster of Hamas from Gaza.
If such a cease fire is ever achieved Hamas would still be the dominant power in Gaza. What has been happening for the last ten days would then only become round one in a contest between Israel and Hamas guaranteed to be renewed with definite certainty and even greater ferocity at some time in the future.
Amazingly too the concern of the world community with the welfare of Gaza’s civilian population has not included a demand that the Rafah crossing – controlled by Egypt – be opened to allow at least Gaza’s women and children to be evacuated whilst the conflict continues. The Arab League has been shamefully silent in making any such demand obviously preferring to keep Gazans penned in as virtual hostages and human shields to become potential casualties in an effort to discredit Israel’s attempts to end the Hamas campaign against Israel.
Everyone seems to have also forgotten that Hamas has been declared a prescribed terrorist organization by America, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia. Hamas has been declared as an illegitimate usurper of power in Gaza by the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas has stymied any efforts to create a 22nd Arab State in Gaza and the West Bank – a political settlement which has no possible chance of happening whilst Hamas controls Gaza and admittedly very little chance of eventuating even if Hamas is ousted from power.
The only satisfactory outcome to Israel’s incursion into Gaza can be the removal of Hamas from Gaza. Anything less will signal an enormous victory for terrorist groups world -wide who will be able to count on hiding behind civilians to ensure that heavy civilian casualties will be the breaking point on which attempts to eliminate the terrorists will ultimately founder.
All terrorist groups must be heartened by the current world-wide demonstrations that focus on Gaza’s undoubted humanitarian crisis and completely ignore the root cause of Gaza’s problem today – the decisions made by Hamas that have brought the territory and its citizens to the disastrous position that they now face.
Israel is doing the world’s dirty work in combating the ugly face of terrorism as it is so ruthlessly exploited in Gaza. There are no NATO forces or troops from other countries supporting Israel’s attempt to silence the Hamas barrage.
Israel has had to take up the gauntlet once again in fighting terrorism as it did when faced with very similar circumstances involving the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon in 1982. At the conclusion of Israel’s then campaign Yasser Arafat and 14000 armed PLO fighters were exiled to Tunisia following mediation by US Ambassador – Philip Habib.
The cancer that had affected both the civilian populations of Israel and Lebanon had been removed.
A Multinational Force was authorized to facilitate the process and to provide protection for Palestinian civilians left in Lebanon. On August 21, 1982 French troops arrived and on August 24 the US Marines went ashore in Beirut. The PLO evacuation was completed without significant incident and the Marines withdrew to their ships on September 10.
A similar outcome is possible - and is essential - if Gazans are to be freed from the conflict and instability that has dogged them since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas ejected the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007.
To enable this to happen Hamas must be militarily ground down to the point where it is in danger of complete extinction unless it retires to lick its wounds and reconsider its options if it wishes to be taken seriously as having any political standing in resolving the Arab - Jewish conflict over the territory once called Palestine.
As diplomatic efforts now step into top gear the consequences of leaving Hamas in control in Gaza need to be fully understood.
Israel must be given the opportunity to militarily end the Hamas reign of terror in Gaza.
Failure to facilitate allowing this to occur will most certainly be a recipe for further conflict and even greater suffering by a civilian population which has paid an inordinately high price for electing Hamas to a position where it was able to lead the civilian population down the road to despair that faces it today.
Continuing terror or the prospect of peace are the options facing the world as they grapple diplomatically in trying to end the war on terrorism in Gaza.
Hopefully they make the right choice.
Mandate for Palestine - July 24, 1922
Jordan is 77% of former Palestine - Israel, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza comprise 23%.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Gaza - The Solution Ain't Rocket Science
[Published January2009]
Gazan Arabs have no one but themselves to blame for voting Hamas into power and allowing Hamas to destroy their lives in the traumatic manner that has suddenly befallen them in the past week.
This inevitability was on the cards from the day Gazans freely - and overwhelmingly - elected Hamas to power in Gaza’s municipal council elections on 28 January 2005 giving Hamas a solid power base and stranglehold in 77 out of the 118 seats contested.
Emboldened by Israel’s total - and unilateral – withdrawal from Gaza on 12 September 2005, Gaza’s population immediately went on a rampage burning synagogues and communal centres left behind in Gaza by the 8000 Jews who had built them over the previous four decades whilst also destroying the productive green houses and agricultural lands created out of desert by the departing Jewish farmers.
Gaza’s exclusively Arab population had by then come to regard Hamas as the party that could really deliver Israel into Islamic hands and wipe the Jewish state off the map as the Hamas Charter so clearly declared. Hamas claimed the credit for Israel’s withdrawal and promised more to the crowds that thronged the Hamas rallies to celebrate Israel’s retreat.
Hamas had by then already carried out thousands of terror attacks killing 425 Israelis and wounding 2,233 others since 2000. Between 1993-2005 Hamas had been responsible for sending 113 suicide bombers into Israel to deliberately target, murder and maim civilians in places like restaurants, buses and shopping centers.
Hamas certainly practised what they preached and Gaza’s civilian population were now prepared to vest Hamas with even greater political power in Gaza.
193,000 Gazans gave Hamas that green light on 25 January 2006 in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections whilst 174,000 Gazans supported the incumbent ruling party - Fatah. Hamas ended up winning 74 seats overall whilst Fatah could only win 45 seats.
Gazans had made their choice undeterred by the fact that Hamas had been declared a terrorist organization by America, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Israel.
Fatah certainly only had itself to blame for its 2006 stunning electoral defeat having allowed Hamas to contest those elections in breach of the Oslo Accords that Fatah had signed in 1995 which stated:
The ensuing havoc and political schism between Hamas and Fatah following Hamas’ huge win saw Gaza being effectively taken over by Hamas whilst a large number of the 174000 Fatah supporters and their families fled to the relative safety of the West Bank to escape the purge of Fatah members occupying positions of power within Gaza’s political echelons. Others were not so lucky and died in the internecine strife that followed.
Entrenched in power in Gaza, Hamas did not embark on nation building. Instead it engaged in a massive build up of rockets smuggled through an extensive network of tunnels running under Egypt and into Gaza whilst continuing to manufacture its own home grown versions for indiscriminate dispatch into Israeli population centres.
Gazans were willing partners to this murderous enterprise making their homes the exit points for newly constructed tunnels whilst actively assisting in the assembling and manufacturing of an arsenal of rockets and mortars that seemed infinite in the number available to be fired at Israel.
Israel absorbed many attacks and responded to others by blockades, embargoes and limited incursions into Gaza which had little effect in stemming the almost daily barrages. Each retaliatory action by Israel was met with huge protests and demonstrations by tens of thousands of Gazans.
No voices of protest or warning were heard or raised in Gaza at its Government’s precipitate action. Some may argue this was caused by fear and that the population had become captive and hostage to its new rulers whose dreams of driving Israel into the sea had overwhelmed its primary responsibility to advance the well being and development of its own constituency.
Suffering became the norm as electricity, water and fuel supplies were cut by Israel.
“Humanitarian crisis”, “collective punishment” and “breaches of international humanitarian law” became the international chants to comfort Gazans as their leaders – duly emboldened by this limp response - persisted with their sworn declaration to kill as many Jews as they could.
Renewal of an uneasy six months’ truce mediated by Egypt in June 2008 was spurned by Hamas. The truce period had enabled a build up of rockets with a far greater range than had been previously been employed. It was time for the rocket game to begin in earnest once again.
Israel however had had enough and has now responded like never before. The destruction visited on Gaza’s institutions of power, its Hamas foot soldiers, rocket launchers, network of tunnels and rocket and mortar arsenal are yet to be publicly revealed. Hamas has not been bowed and has indicated its intention of continuing its suicidal program by firing more rockets far deeper into Israel than previously thought possible.
Gazan Arabs are now having their electoral decisions sheeted home to them in no uncertain fashion. Whilst the Palestine Liberation Organisation may have been foisted on them in an undemocratic fashion in 1964, the embrace of Hamas in 2005 and 2006 was decidedly the opposite.
Rescuing the Gazans from the disastrous consequences of their political choices involves the removal of Hamas. Replacing Hamas with Fatah is not really a viable alternative. Fatah has shown itself to be totally incapable of reaching a peaceful accommodation with Israel after 15 years of fruitless negotiations. Both organizations are total political write-offs.
The only possible solution involves Egypt reassuming control over Gaza as it did between 1948-1967. This time there will have to be one fundamental difference – Gaza and its citizens must embark on the road to peace with – not seek the destruction of – Israel.
Redrawing the boundary between Israel and Egypt to incorporate all of Gaza and its citizens in Egypt’s sovereign territory is a commonsense approach that now urgently requires the support of the Arab League, the other Islamic States and the remainder of the international community to make it work.
It can - and must – happen if the suffering and despair of the Gazan Arabs are to be ended.
This solution does not –thankfully – involve rocket science although first removing Hamas probably will.
Gazan Arabs have no one but themselves to blame for voting Hamas into power and allowing Hamas to destroy their lives in the traumatic manner that has suddenly befallen them in the past week.
This inevitability was on the cards from the day Gazans freely - and overwhelmingly - elected Hamas to power in Gaza’s municipal council elections on 28 January 2005 giving Hamas a solid power base and stranglehold in 77 out of the 118 seats contested.
Emboldened by Israel’s total - and unilateral – withdrawal from Gaza on 12 September 2005, Gaza’s population immediately went on a rampage burning synagogues and communal centres left behind in Gaza by the 8000 Jews who had built them over the previous four decades whilst also destroying the productive green houses and agricultural lands created out of desert by the departing Jewish farmers.
Gaza’s exclusively Arab population had by then come to regard Hamas as the party that could really deliver Israel into Islamic hands and wipe the Jewish state off the map as the Hamas Charter so clearly declared. Hamas claimed the credit for Israel’s withdrawal and promised more to the crowds that thronged the Hamas rallies to celebrate Israel’s retreat.
Hamas had by then already carried out thousands of terror attacks killing 425 Israelis and wounding 2,233 others since 2000. Between 1993-2005 Hamas had been responsible for sending 113 suicide bombers into Israel to deliberately target, murder and maim civilians in places like restaurants, buses and shopping centers.
Hamas certainly practised what they preached and Gaza’s civilian population were now prepared to vest Hamas with even greater political power in Gaza.
193,000 Gazans gave Hamas that green light on 25 January 2006 in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections whilst 174,000 Gazans supported the incumbent ruling party - Fatah. Hamas ended up winning 74 seats overall whilst Fatah could only win 45 seats.
Gazans had made their choice undeterred by the fact that Hamas had been declared a terrorist organization by America, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Israel.
Fatah certainly only had itself to blame for its 2006 stunning electoral defeat having allowed Hamas to contest those elections in breach of the Oslo Accords that Fatah had signed in 1995 which stated:
“The nomination of any candidates, parties or coalitions will be refused, and such nomination or registration will be cancelled, if such candidates, parties or coalitions 1) commit or advocate racism, or 2) pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful non-democratic means.”
The ensuing havoc and political schism between Hamas and Fatah following Hamas’ huge win saw Gaza being effectively taken over by Hamas whilst a large number of the 174000 Fatah supporters and their families fled to the relative safety of the West Bank to escape the purge of Fatah members occupying positions of power within Gaza’s political echelons. Others were not so lucky and died in the internecine strife that followed.
Entrenched in power in Gaza, Hamas did not embark on nation building. Instead it engaged in a massive build up of rockets smuggled through an extensive network of tunnels running under Egypt and into Gaza whilst continuing to manufacture its own home grown versions for indiscriminate dispatch into Israeli population centres.
Gazans were willing partners to this murderous enterprise making their homes the exit points for newly constructed tunnels whilst actively assisting in the assembling and manufacturing of an arsenal of rockets and mortars that seemed infinite in the number available to be fired at Israel.
Israel absorbed many attacks and responded to others by blockades, embargoes and limited incursions into Gaza which had little effect in stemming the almost daily barrages. Each retaliatory action by Israel was met with huge protests and demonstrations by tens of thousands of Gazans.
No voices of protest or warning were heard or raised in Gaza at its Government’s precipitate action. Some may argue this was caused by fear and that the population had become captive and hostage to its new rulers whose dreams of driving Israel into the sea had overwhelmed its primary responsibility to advance the well being and development of its own constituency.
Suffering became the norm as electricity, water and fuel supplies were cut by Israel.
“Humanitarian crisis”, “collective punishment” and “breaches of international humanitarian law” became the international chants to comfort Gazans as their leaders – duly emboldened by this limp response - persisted with their sworn declaration to kill as many Jews as they could.
Renewal of an uneasy six months’ truce mediated by Egypt in June 2008 was spurned by Hamas. The truce period had enabled a build up of rockets with a far greater range than had been previously been employed. It was time for the rocket game to begin in earnest once again.
Israel however had had enough and has now responded like never before. The destruction visited on Gaza’s institutions of power, its Hamas foot soldiers, rocket launchers, network of tunnels and rocket and mortar arsenal are yet to be publicly revealed. Hamas has not been bowed and has indicated its intention of continuing its suicidal program by firing more rockets far deeper into Israel than previously thought possible.
Gazan Arabs are now having their electoral decisions sheeted home to them in no uncertain fashion. Whilst the Palestine Liberation Organisation may have been foisted on them in an undemocratic fashion in 1964, the embrace of Hamas in 2005 and 2006 was decidedly the opposite.
Rescuing the Gazans from the disastrous consequences of their political choices involves the removal of Hamas. Replacing Hamas with Fatah is not really a viable alternative. Fatah has shown itself to be totally incapable of reaching a peaceful accommodation with Israel after 15 years of fruitless negotiations. Both organizations are total political write-offs.
The only possible solution involves Egypt reassuming control over Gaza as it did between 1948-1967. This time there will have to be one fundamental difference – Gaza and its citizens must embark on the road to peace with – not seek the destruction of – Israel.
Redrawing the boundary between Israel and Egypt to incorporate all of Gaza and its citizens in Egypt’s sovereign territory is a commonsense approach that now urgently requires the support of the Arab League, the other Islamic States and the remainder of the international community to make it work.
It can - and must – happen if the suffering and despair of the Gazan Arabs are to be ended.
This solution does not –thankfully – involve rocket science although first removing Hamas probably will.
Palestine - The Ten Commandments That Must Be Broken
[Published December 2008]
The United Nations Security Council in passing Resolution 1850 on 19 December 2008 solemnly noted:
Strangely the Security Council in coming to this considered position made no mention of one of the greatest obstacles to achieving that mutual recognition - the arrogant, racist driven and offensive provisions contained in the Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The Charter still remains in its 1967 format despite spurious claims by the PLO to have amended or revoked its terms as a condition of – and following - the execution of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The Charter contains the following Ten Commandments to be followed by Palestinian Arabs in denying Jews any claim to sovereignty in any part of Palestine, pursuing Arab supremacist claims to all of Palestine, nullifying international law recognizing that the Jews have the right to nationhood similar to the Arab Nation and absolutely precluding the possibility of any “two-State” solution:
1. Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland and the people of Palestine is a part of the Arab Nation
2. Palestine with its boundaries that existed in the time of the British Mandate is an indivisible territorial unit.
3. The Palestinian Arab people possesses the legal right to its homeland
4. Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.
5. The Palestinian Arab people affirm its absolute resolution and abiding determination to exercise its right of self determination in Palestine and sovereignty over it.
6. The partitioning of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel are fundamentally null and void whatever time has elapsed
7. The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate Document and everything based upon them are deemed null and void.
8. The claim of historical ties or religious ties between Jews and Palestine does not tally with historical realities nor with the constituents of statehood in their true sense.
9. Judaism is not a nationality with an independent existence
10. The Jews are not one people with an independent identity but citizens of the state to which they belong.
This disturbing mindset is one that needs to be eradicated before any chance of resolving sovereignty in the West Bank between Arabs and Jews becomes even a remote possibility.
Such ideas fuel continuing Arab demands that call for:
1. A “one-State solution”,
2. Millions of Arabs being allowed to emigrate into Israel
3. Israel ceasing to exist as the Jewish State
4. The West Bank being turned into a “No Jews” zone.
5. Unrealistic “peace proposals” such as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative
6. Solidarity and enforced silence from many of the 57 States in the Arab and Islamic world that wish to normalise their relations with Israel but are afraid to do so
7. Support of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad
8. Continued indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on Israel’s civilian population centres
The United Nations lacks the ability to procure the passage of any resolution - either in the General Assembly or the Security Council – calling on its Arab, Islamic and Third World members to condemn the continued existence of these hate-driven provisions in the PLO Charter.
Nor does the United Nations possess the willpower to demand the PLO redraw the Charter to remove these offensive provisions and raise some hope of a possible end to 130 years of Arab delusion, paranoia and rejectionism that has prevented any Arab acknowledgement that Jews have any rights to a Jewish State in any part of their biblical and internationally sanctioned homeland.
Resolution 1850 is therefore not worth the paper it is written on. Its call for mutual recognition is merely empty words devoid of any legal enforcement or moral persuasion. The Resolution reflects the impotence of the Security Council to do anything but attempt to save face as it finally realises that time has run out for the Bush Performance Based Road Map and the ignominious role played by the United Nations as a member of the supposedly high powered Quartet that was going to bring the lasting peace that had eluded all the intensive efforts by so many others before it.
Until these Ten Commandments prescribed in the PLO Charter are obliterated and shredded into tiny little pieces, any hopes of peacefully resolving the conflicting Arab and Jewish claims to the West Bank and Gaza are doomed to failure.
To suggest these insuperable barriers to peace will be removed once a peace agreement is signed is to believe in the existence of fairies at the bottom of the garden. Putting the cart before the horse only guarantees that your longed for destination will never be reached.
2009 therefore promises to be another year of tragedy and suffering for both Jews and Arabs.
Resolution 1850 has now dubbed the “two-State solution” - involving the creation of a 22nd Arab State between Jordan and Israel - as “an irreversible process”.
Unfortunately it is only the negotiations to achieve this outcome that continue to slide irreversibly into ever growing farce and continuing failure. They will continue to go backwards until the Arab mindset expressed in the PLO Charter is changed.
No amount of sweet talk and “feel good” statements by the United Nations can halt this downward spiral. Indeed Resolutions such as 1850 only serve to reward continuing Arab intransigence by failing to condemn demands made by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League extending over the last 60 years that remain unchanged and have no possibility of being accepted by Israel
The time for talkfests and playing diplomatic games has well and truly expired.
Bad Commandments require to be broken and these ten are perfect examples of what can be achieved if this occurs. At this time and season of universal goodwill we can only hope such a miracle happens very soon.
The United Nations Security Council in passing Resolution 1850 on 19 December 2008 solemnly noted:
“that lasting peace can only be based on an enduring commitment to mutual recognition, freedom from violence, incitement and terror and the two-State solution ..”
Strangely the Security Council in coming to this considered position made no mention of one of the greatest obstacles to achieving that mutual recognition - the arrogant, racist driven and offensive provisions contained in the Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The Charter still remains in its 1967 format despite spurious claims by the PLO to have amended or revoked its terms as a condition of – and following - the execution of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The Charter contains the following Ten Commandments to be followed by Palestinian Arabs in denying Jews any claim to sovereignty in any part of Palestine, pursuing Arab supremacist claims to all of Palestine, nullifying international law recognizing that the Jews have the right to nationhood similar to the Arab Nation and absolutely precluding the possibility of any “two-State” solution:
1. Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland and the people of Palestine is a part of the Arab Nation
2. Palestine with its boundaries that existed in the time of the British Mandate is an indivisible territorial unit.
3. The Palestinian Arab people possesses the legal right to its homeland
4. Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.
5. The Palestinian Arab people affirm its absolute resolution and abiding determination to exercise its right of self determination in Palestine and sovereignty over it.
6. The partitioning of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel are fundamentally null and void whatever time has elapsed
7. The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate Document and everything based upon them are deemed null and void.
8. The claim of historical ties or religious ties between Jews and Palestine does not tally with historical realities nor with the constituents of statehood in their true sense.
9. Judaism is not a nationality with an independent existence
10. The Jews are not one people with an independent identity but citizens of the state to which they belong.
This disturbing mindset is one that needs to be eradicated before any chance of resolving sovereignty in the West Bank between Arabs and Jews becomes even a remote possibility.
Such ideas fuel continuing Arab demands that call for:
1. A “one-State solution”,
2. Millions of Arabs being allowed to emigrate into Israel
3. Israel ceasing to exist as the Jewish State
4. The West Bank being turned into a “No Jews” zone.
5. Unrealistic “peace proposals” such as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative
6. Solidarity and enforced silence from many of the 57 States in the Arab and Islamic world that wish to normalise their relations with Israel but are afraid to do so
7. Support of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad
8. Continued indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on Israel’s civilian population centres
The United Nations lacks the ability to procure the passage of any resolution - either in the General Assembly or the Security Council – calling on its Arab, Islamic and Third World members to condemn the continued existence of these hate-driven provisions in the PLO Charter.
Nor does the United Nations possess the willpower to demand the PLO redraw the Charter to remove these offensive provisions and raise some hope of a possible end to 130 years of Arab delusion, paranoia and rejectionism that has prevented any Arab acknowledgement that Jews have any rights to a Jewish State in any part of their biblical and internationally sanctioned homeland.
Resolution 1850 is therefore not worth the paper it is written on. Its call for mutual recognition is merely empty words devoid of any legal enforcement or moral persuasion. The Resolution reflects the impotence of the Security Council to do anything but attempt to save face as it finally realises that time has run out for the Bush Performance Based Road Map and the ignominious role played by the United Nations as a member of the supposedly high powered Quartet that was going to bring the lasting peace that had eluded all the intensive efforts by so many others before it.
Until these Ten Commandments prescribed in the PLO Charter are obliterated and shredded into tiny little pieces, any hopes of peacefully resolving the conflicting Arab and Jewish claims to the West Bank and Gaza are doomed to failure.
To suggest these insuperable barriers to peace will be removed once a peace agreement is signed is to believe in the existence of fairies at the bottom of the garden. Putting the cart before the horse only guarantees that your longed for destination will never be reached.
2009 therefore promises to be another year of tragedy and suffering for both Jews and Arabs.
Resolution 1850 has now dubbed the “two-State solution” - involving the creation of a 22nd Arab State between Jordan and Israel - as “an irreversible process”.
Unfortunately it is only the negotiations to achieve this outcome that continue to slide irreversibly into ever growing farce and continuing failure. They will continue to go backwards until the Arab mindset expressed in the PLO Charter is changed.
No amount of sweet talk and “feel good” statements by the United Nations can halt this downward spiral. Indeed Resolutions such as 1850 only serve to reward continuing Arab intransigence by failing to condemn demands made by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League extending over the last 60 years that remain unchanged and have no possibility of being accepted by Israel
The time for talkfests and playing diplomatic games has well and truly expired.
Bad Commandments require to be broken and these ten are perfect examples of what can be achieved if this occurs. At this time and season of universal goodwill we can only hope such a miracle happens very soon.
UN Security Council Flirts With Racist Fantasyland
[Published December 2008]
This call to remove every Jew living in the West Bank – 500000 men, women and children - was accepted in total silence by the United Nations. No urgent meeting of the General Assembly or any of its Human Rights Committees was called to condemn this racial vilification of Jews by a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and its chief negotiator with Israel.
One remembers how fervently world leaders correctly argued that you couldn’t blame all Moslems for the terrorist actions of those few who hijack Islam and commit horrible atrocities worldwide in the name of Allah.
No similar statements were heard from those same leaders this week condemning Mr Queri for calling for the removal of those 500000 Jews because of the misguided actions of a few.
Collective punishment – not to be tolerated for Gazan Arabs – was perfectly acceptable when it involved West Bank Jews.
Indeed the UN Security Council met just three days after Mr. Qurei’s outrageous statement –yet raised not one word of protest or censure at his highly offensive and hate-ridden remarks.
Instead it passed Resolution 1850 (2008) by 14 votes to 0 - with Libya abstaining – declaring:
and called on
One could not imagine a more destructive statement designed to undermine confidence or to prejudice the outcome of the Annapolis negotiations than that delivered by Mr. Qurei.
His demand defiantly flies in the face of the written commitment given by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on 14 April 2004 – forming an integral part of the Roadmap negotiating process under the auspices of the Quartet - America, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
In that letter President Bush stated:
In declaring its support for the Annapolis negotiations the Security Council conveniently ignored the basis on which those negotiations were undertaken by Israel as expressed in these clear and unambiguous terms by its Prime Minister – Ehud Olmert – at the opening of the Annapolis conference:
All the international players sitting in the Security Council – including outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – were surely aware that Mr Qurei’s statement sounded the death knell for the Annapolis negotiations and signalled the end of any hope for a successful outcome of those negotiations.
Yet instead of condemning Mr Qurei’s statement - or demanding its retraction - Ms. Rice had the effrontery to tell the Security Council that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators:
The only conclusion that one can draw from the Security Council’s extraordinary conduct in totally ignoring Mr Qurei’s statement is its unwillingness to face up to the fact that Annapolis is finished, President Bush’s dream has turned into a nightmare and the Quartet’s strategy in backing President Bush’s Roadmap has exposed it as totally impotent in having any influence to determine the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank between Jews and Arabs.
The Security Council by its silence has offered encouragement to those Jew haters like Mr Qurei who for the last 130 years have opposed Jews having any right to live in their biblical homeland – the West Bank - or indeed within any part of the 23% of Palestine designated by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter as the site for the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home.
In doing nothing to disavow the Arabs from pursuing their long standing enmity and racial hatred of the Jews, the Security Council has ignored a whole body of international law on the issue and given comfort to the long held Arab view that everything done since the creation of the Mandate in 1920 is deemed null and void.
“Jews out” is indeed a call that is still alive and kicking in the Middle East.
This racist fantasyland has been given a considerable boost by the Security Council’s flirtation with - and failure to unequivocally repudiate - Mr Qurei’s remarks when endorsing Resolution 1850.
United Nations efforts to eliminate all forms of racism worldwide have been seriously compromised.
RIP President Bush’s Performance –Based Roadmap. RIP Annapolis. RIP the United Nations.
“All these attacks prove that settlers are dangerous and that it’s impossible to live with them. If these settlers are allowed to stay, that would mean more friction and confrontation. Peace can be achieved only if Israel withdraws to the last centimetre of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967” - Ahmed Qurei , Head of Palestinian Authority Negotiating Team – Jerusalem Post - 13 December 2008
This call to remove every Jew living in the West Bank – 500000 men, women and children - was accepted in total silence by the United Nations. No urgent meeting of the General Assembly or any of its Human Rights Committees was called to condemn this racial vilification of Jews by a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and its chief negotiator with Israel.
One remembers how fervently world leaders correctly argued that you couldn’t blame all Moslems for the terrorist actions of those few who hijack Islam and commit horrible atrocities worldwide in the name of Allah.
No similar statements were heard from those same leaders this week condemning Mr Queri for calling for the removal of those 500000 Jews because of the misguided actions of a few.
Collective punishment – not to be tolerated for Gazan Arabs – was perfectly acceptable when it involved West Bank Jews.
Indeed the UN Security Council met just three days after Mr. Qurei’s outrageous statement –yet raised not one word of protest or censure at his highly offensive and hate-ridden remarks.
Instead it passed Resolution 1850 (2008) by 14 votes to 0 - with Libya abstaining – declaring:
“its support for the negotiations initiated at Annapolis on 27 November 2007 and its commitment to the irreversibility of the bilateral negotiations”
and called on
“both parties to fulfil their obligations under the Performance-Based Roadmap, as stated in their Annapolis Joint Understanding and refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of negotiations.”
One could not imagine a more destructive statement designed to undermine confidence or to prejudice the outcome of the Annapolis negotiations than that delivered by Mr. Qurei.
His demand defiantly flies in the face of the written commitment given by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on 14 April 2004 – forming an integral part of the Roadmap negotiating process under the auspices of the Quartet - America, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
In that letter President Bush stated:
“As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities. “
In declaring its support for the Annapolis negotiations the Security Council conveniently ignored the basis on which those negotiations were undertaken by Israel as expressed in these clear and unambiguous terms by its Prime Minister – Ehud Olmert – at the opening of the Annapolis conference:
“The negotiations will be based on previous agreements between us, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the road map and the April 14, 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel.”
All the international players sitting in the Security Council – including outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – were surely aware that Mr Qurei’s statement sounded the death knell for the Annapolis negotiations and signalled the end of any hope for a successful outcome of those negotiations.
Yet instead of condemning Mr Qurei’s statement - or demanding its retraction - Ms. Rice had the effrontery to tell the Security Council that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators:
“had made the choice to defeat an ideology of hatred with one of hope”
The only conclusion that one can draw from the Security Council’s extraordinary conduct in totally ignoring Mr Qurei’s statement is its unwillingness to face up to the fact that Annapolis is finished, President Bush’s dream has turned into a nightmare and the Quartet’s strategy in backing President Bush’s Roadmap has exposed it as totally impotent in having any influence to determine the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank between Jews and Arabs.
The Security Council by its silence has offered encouragement to those Jew haters like Mr Qurei who for the last 130 years have opposed Jews having any right to live in their biblical homeland – the West Bank - or indeed within any part of the 23% of Palestine designated by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter as the site for the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home.
In doing nothing to disavow the Arabs from pursuing their long standing enmity and racial hatred of the Jews, the Security Council has ignored a whole body of international law on the issue and given comfort to the long held Arab view that everything done since the creation of the Mandate in 1920 is deemed null and void.
“Jews out” is indeed a call that is still alive and kicking in the Middle East.
This racist fantasyland has been given a considerable boost by the Security Council’s flirtation with - and failure to unequivocally repudiate - Mr Qurei’s remarks when endorsing Resolution 1850.
United Nations efforts to eliminate all forms of racism worldwide have been seriously compromised.
RIP President Bush’s Performance –Based Roadmap. RIP Annapolis. RIP the United Nations.
Palestine - Consolation And Consolidation
[Published December 2008]
The failure of the Palestinian Arabs to grab the opportunity of statehood offered to them in 1937, 1947, and between 1948 - 1967 and 1993 - 2008 must surely now be testing the international community’s patience.
A lot of prestige, time, effort and billions of dollars has been spent by the international community over the last 15 years trying to successfully achieve the creation of a 22nd Arab State between Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
Such a State – if created - would have come into existence for the first time ever in recorded history.
It would have been located in the West Bank and Gaza - territory actually promised to the Jewish people as part of the site for the reconstitution of their national home by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
Israel has reportedly now agreed to end the 130 years old conflict between the Arabs and the Jews by evacuating 70000 Jews from the West Bank, relinquishing any claim to 93.5% of the West Bank and all of Gaza and by excising from the sovereign territory of Israel an area equivalent to the remaining 6.5% of the West Bank..
This compromise ensured:
1, Israel procured secure and recognized boundaries as prescribed by Security Council Resolution 242 and
2. 430000 of the 500000 Jews currently living in the West Bank would be allowed to continue to live where they presently resided as Israeli citizens within the expanded boundaries of the State of Israel.
These proposals have been rejected by the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the negotiating arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) - which demands 100% of the West Bank and Gaza and the ouster of its 500000 Jewish residents – Arab demands that have indeed been pressed without modification since 1967.
To all intents and purposes the current negotiations have come to an irreconcilable end and what purports to constitute ongoing negotiations is simply empty and meaningless talk leading to nowhere.
How then should the international community now respond to this stalemate?
For the answer one first needs to go back to the years between 1948-1967 when not one Jew lived in the West Bank or Gaza and these areas - constituting about 6% of former Palestine – were then respectively under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation.
A separate and independent Arab State could have then been established in the entirety of these territories at any time within those 19 years by the stroke of a pen and with the consent and blessing of the Arab League.
The reason why what is being strenuously sought now was not demanded or created then can be gleaned from perusing Article 24 of the founding Charter of the PLO in 1964 which stated:
Regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza was therefore clearly never contemplated by the PLO or the Arab League in 1964. Another independent Arab State in these areas was never sought nor demanded by the Palestinian Arabs from its Arab occupiers – Jordan and Egypt.
The international community needs to take note of that Arab position, the subsequent loss to Israel of the West Bank and Gaza by Jordan and Egypt respectively in the Six Days War in 1967 and the total failure of negotiations between Israel and the PLO over the last 15 years.
The international community needs to conclude and require that regional sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza now be allocated between Israel, Jordan and Egypt in direct face to face trilateral negotiations.
Jordan only abandoned its claims to the West Bank in 1988 in favour of the PLO. The PA was created by the PLO in 1993 to negotiate the future of the West Bank and Gaza after the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO.
There appears to be no impediment to Jordan and Egypt once again assuming the mantle to negotiate the issue of regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza with Israel now that the PA has proved itself totally incapable of ever reaching any settlement with Israel and has been reduced to a completely ineffectual and spent force since its split with Hamas in 2007.
Should Jordan and Egypt both refuse to accept this negotiating role then the international community should indicate it is not prepared to invest any further time, effort and money in trying to resolve the issue of regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza.
There are too many other pressing problems in the world where such time, effort and money can be better directed in the hope of achieving satisfactory outcomes that have eluded the West Bank and Gaza for 40 years.
Bringing the issue to a head – rather than allowing it to meander aimlessly nowhere – is urgently required to end the daily suffering of both Jews and Arabs as any breakthrough in the Roadmap negotiations fails to materialise.
The Palestinian Arabs will receive a consolation prize – seeing the status quo existing in 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza being restored in a substantial majority of those territories as they are consolidated within either Jordan or Egypt.
Those Arab residents coming under Egyptian or Jordanian sovereignty will attain Egyptian or Jordanian nationality and freedom of unimpeded movement within the expanded boundaries of Egypt and Jordan.
Those residents have always considered themselves as a part of the Arab nation and will be reunited with their fellow Arabs in one of the 21 existing Arab States that comprise the territorial area of that nation.
The international community or Israel should not expect to receive any iron clad guarantee that the PLO and Hamas would abandon their common objective of destroying the state of Israel.
But finality would hopefully be brought to the issue of regional sovereignty in the whole of former Palestine – an unfinished piece of business that has festered with disastrous consequences since 1967.
The failure of the Palestinian Arabs to grab the opportunity of statehood offered to them in 1937, 1947, and between 1948 - 1967 and 1993 - 2008 must surely now be testing the international community’s patience.
A lot of prestige, time, effort and billions of dollars has been spent by the international community over the last 15 years trying to successfully achieve the creation of a 22nd Arab State between Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
Such a State – if created - would have come into existence for the first time ever in recorded history.
It would have been located in the West Bank and Gaza - territory actually promised to the Jewish people as part of the site for the reconstitution of their national home by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
Israel has reportedly now agreed to end the 130 years old conflict between the Arabs and the Jews by evacuating 70000 Jews from the West Bank, relinquishing any claim to 93.5% of the West Bank and all of Gaza and by excising from the sovereign territory of Israel an area equivalent to the remaining 6.5% of the West Bank..
This compromise ensured:
1, Israel procured secure and recognized boundaries as prescribed by Security Council Resolution 242 and
2. 430000 of the 500000 Jews currently living in the West Bank would be allowed to continue to live where they presently resided as Israeli citizens within the expanded boundaries of the State of Israel.
These proposals have been rejected by the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the negotiating arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) - which demands 100% of the West Bank and Gaza and the ouster of its 500000 Jewish residents – Arab demands that have indeed been pressed without modification since 1967.
To all intents and purposes the current negotiations have come to an irreconcilable end and what purports to constitute ongoing negotiations is simply empty and meaningless talk leading to nowhere.
How then should the international community now respond to this stalemate?
For the answer one first needs to go back to the years between 1948-1967 when not one Jew lived in the West Bank or Gaza and these areas - constituting about 6% of former Palestine – were then respectively under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation.
A separate and independent Arab State could have then been established in the entirety of these territories at any time within those 19 years by the stroke of a pen and with the consent and blessing of the Arab League.
The reason why what is being strenuously sought now was not demanded or created then can be gleaned from perusing Article 24 of the founding Charter of the PLO in 1964 which stated:
“This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.”
Regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza was therefore clearly never contemplated by the PLO or the Arab League in 1964. Another independent Arab State in these areas was never sought nor demanded by the Palestinian Arabs from its Arab occupiers – Jordan and Egypt.
The international community needs to take note of that Arab position, the subsequent loss to Israel of the West Bank and Gaza by Jordan and Egypt respectively in the Six Days War in 1967 and the total failure of negotiations between Israel and the PLO over the last 15 years.
The international community needs to conclude and require that regional sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza now be allocated between Israel, Jordan and Egypt in direct face to face trilateral negotiations.
Jordan only abandoned its claims to the West Bank in 1988 in favour of the PLO. The PA was created by the PLO in 1993 to negotiate the future of the West Bank and Gaza after the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO.
There appears to be no impediment to Jordan and Egypt once again assuming the mantle to negotiate the issue of regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza with Israel now that the PA has proved itself totally incapable of ever reaching any settlement with Israel and has been reduced to a completely ineffectual and spent force since its split with Hamas in 2007.
Should Jordan and Egypt both refuse to accept this negotiating role then the international community should indicate it is not prepared to invest any further time, effort and money in trying to resolve the issue of regional sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza.
There are too many other pressing problems in the world where such time, effort and money can be better directed in the hope of achieving satisfactory outcomes that have eluded the West Bank and Gaza for 40 years.
Bringing the issue to a head – rather than allowing it to meander aimlessly nowhere – is urgently required to end the daily suffering of both Jews and Arabs as any breakthrough in the Roadmap negotiations fails to materialise.
The Palestinian Arabs will receive a consolation prize – seeing the status quo existing in 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza being restored in a substantial majority of those territories as they are consolidated within either Jordan or Egypt.
Those Arab residents coming under Egyptian or Jordanian sovereignty will attain Egyptian or Jordanian nationality and freedom of unimpeded movement within the expanded boundaries of Egypt and Jordan.
Those residents have always considered themselves as a part of the Arab nation and will be reunited with their fellow Arabs in one of the 21 existing Arab States that comprise the territorial area of that nation.
The international community or Israel should not expect to receive any iron clad guarantee that the PLO and Hamas would abandon their common objective of destroying the state of Israel.
But finality would hopefully be brought to the issue of regional sovereignty in the whole of former Palestine – an unfinished piece of business that has festered with disastrous consequences since 1967.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Palestine And Obama - Ego Trip Or Meaningful Journey?
[Published December 2008]
Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State will afford many future opportunities to compare her performance with her predecessor Condoleezza Rice in bringing finality to the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza - where no internationally recognised sovereign ruler has reigned supreme since Britain left in haste in 1948 with its lion’s tail firmly planted between its legs.
To be fair to Ms Rice her failure to resolve the status of the West Bank and Gaza was due to the flawed objectives of President Bush’s 2003 Roadmap - popularly termed the “two state solution”.
President Bush misguidedly envisioned the Palestinian Arabs accepting a democratic, contiguous, viable - - and 22nd Arab Moslem - state in the major part of the West Bank and Gaza between Jordan, Egypt and Israel - living in peace and harmony alongside an expanded Jewish State whose boundaries would incorporate a substantial majority of the 200000 Jews then living in the West Bank and Gaza.
President Bush also believed the Arabs would abandon their 70 years old demand for millions of Arabs to be granted permission to emigrate to Israel - opting instead to engage in the business of nation building in their own newly created state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Not only he genuinely believed this laudable and idealistic goal was achievable. The President was able to convince the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to join him in negotiating such an outcome.
He - and they - have been proved sorely wrong on all counts.
Ms Rice became the most frequent - and frustrated - foreign emissary to the region since the Roadmap’s formulation yet failed to achieve even the slightest change in the Arabs’ negotiating stance - first formulated in 1967 - which totally rejected the President’s vision and its desired result.
Israel had been prepared to make concessions in settling its claims in the West Bank and Gaza in accordance with the rights accruing to the Jewish people under Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. However in the face of entrenched Arab opposition to recognising any Jewish claims of any sort whatsoever in the West Bank and Gaza those concessions were always bound to be rejected.
President Bush’s belief that he could solve the Arab - Jewish conflict has come crashing to the ground joining the failed attempts of President Carter and President Clinton - who also thought they too had the power prestige and standing to do exactly the same.
Now President-elect Obama stands ready to follow their footsteps. He needs to be very careful in believing he has the answers to finally end the Arab -Jewish conflict where distinguished former Presidents - and even the League of Nations and United Nations before them - have failed so abysmally.
Unverified reports that President-elect Obama intends to pursue the two-state solution or perhaps even embrace the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative will inevitably land him in the same cavernous potholes that President Bush - and those who resolutely accompanied him - encountered in their six year trip to nowhere.
The Arab League Initiative is a sugar coated pill that merely repeats the 40 years old Arab demands that have caused the Roadmap to be taken off the best seller list. Put to the Jewish people as a “take it or leave it” proposal the Initiative will be rejected - as no major political party in Israel could possibly embrace its terms unconditionally and hope to gain Government when the next elections are held in February 2009.
Peace between Jews and Arabs will not be achieved in one trip. There will need to be frequent garage stops to refuel the vehicle and even a few oil and grease changes. It is a very long journey that will require patient and very careful navigation around all kinds of obstacles and pot holes.
The overly-ambitious objective of totally solving the conflict should now give way to genuine attempts to manage and moderate the conflict - rather than bring it to a triumphant and permanent end - since Jews and Arabs remain as far apart as they were when the division of Palestine was first proposed between them by the Peel Commission in 1937.
President-elect Obama needs to prepare for his journey armed with the Congressional Resolution dated 21 September 1922 (42 Stat. 1012 PART 1, 1922) signed by the 29th President Warren G. Harding which stated:
The President-elect should unequivocally affirm his support for this resolution and its clear intent.
He needs to understand where the territorial boundaries of “Palestine” were located in 1922 and what has since happened to the allocation of sovereignty between Arabs and Jews in the length and breadth of that territory.
He has to recognise that the Jews now exercise sovereignty in 17% of Palestine, the Arabs exercise sovereignty in 77% of Palestine and that sovereignty remains unallocated between either Jews or Arabs in the remaining 6% now called the West Bank and Gaza.
He must appreciate that the history of Palestine did not start in 1948, that it was part of the territorial division of the Ottoman Empire after the defeat of Turkey in World War 1 - offering the Arab nation self determination in 99.99% of that liberated land and the Jewish people self determination in just 0.01% of such land.
He must acknowledge the body of international law that exists in relation to Palestine - starting with the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 - which the Arabs now need to finally accept since continuing rejection prevents any possible prospect of a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Jewish conflict.
Armed with this body of information President-elect Obama will understand why the two state solution and the Arab League Initiative never did, never could, and never will succeed. He should be able to conclude that changes in the Arab negotiating stance are necessary since pressing for 100% of your demands can never lead to a concluded agreement with your adversary.
President-elect Obama must carefully plan for the journey that awaits him before he turns the engine on.
Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State will afford many future opportunities to compare her performance with her predecessor Condoleezza Rice in bringing finality to the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza - where no internationally recognised sovereign ruler has reigned supreme since Britain left in haste in 1948 with its lion’s tail firmly planted between its legs.
To be fair to Ms Rice her failure to resolve the status of the West Bank and Gaza was due to the flawed objectives of President Bush’s 2003 Roadmap - popularly termed the “two state solution”.
President Bush misguidedly envisioned the Palestinian Arabs accepting a democratic, contiguous, viable - - and 22nd Arab Moslem - state in the major part of the West Bank and Gaza between Jordan, Egypt and Israel - living in peace and harmony alongside an expanded Jewish State whose boundaries would incorporate a substantial majority of the 200000 Jews then living in the West Bank and Gaza.
President Bush also believed the Arabs would abandon their 70 years old demand for millions of Arabs to be granted permission to emigrate to Israel - opting instead to engage in the business of nation building in their own newly created state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Not only he genuinely believed this laudable and idealistic goal was achievable. The President was able to convince the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to join him in negotiating such an outcome.
He - and they - have been proved sorely wrong on all counts.
Ms Rice became the most frequent - and frustrated - foreign emissary to the region since the Roadmap’s formulation yet failed to achieve even the slightest change in the Arabs’ negotiating stance - first formulated in 1967 - which totally rejected the President’s vision and its desired result.
Israel had been prepared to make concessions in settling its claims in the West Bank and Gaza in accordance with the rights accruing to the Jewish people under Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. However in the face of entrenched Arab opposition to recognising any Jewish claims of any sort whatsoever in the West Bank and Gaza those concessions were always bound to be rejected.
President Bush’s belief that he could solve the Arab - Jewish conflict has come crashing to the ground joining the failed attempts of President Carter and President Clinton - who also thought they too had the power prestige and standing to do exactly the same.
Now President-elect Obama stands ready to follow their footsteps. He needs to be very careful in believing he has the answers to finally end the Arab -Jewish conflict where distinguished former Presidents - and even the League of Nations and United Nations before them - have failed so abysmally.
Unverified reports that President-elect Obama intends to pursue the two-state solution or perhaps even embrace the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative will inevitably land him in the same cavernous potholes that President Bush - and those who resolutely accompanied him - encountered in their six year trip to nowhere.
The Arab League Initiative is a sugar coated pill that merely repeats the 40 years old Arab demands that have caused the Roadmap to be taken off the best seller list. Put to the Jewish people as a “take it or leave it” proposal the Initiative will be rejected - as no major political party in Israel could possibly embrace its terms unconditionally and hope to gain Government when the next elections are held in February 2009.
Peace between Jews and Arabs will not be achieved in one trip. There will need to be frequent garage stops to refuel the vehicle and even a few oil and grease changes. It is a very long journey that will require patient and very careful navigation around all kinds of obstacles and pot holes.
The overly-ambitious objective of totally solving the conflict should now give way to genuine attempts to manage and moderate the conflict - rather than bring it to a triumphant and permanent end - since Jews and Arabs remain as far apart as they were when the division of Palestine was first proposed between them by the Peel Commission in 1937.
President-elect Obama needs to prepare for his journey armed with the Congressional Resolution dated 21 September 1922 (42 Stat. 1012 PART 1, 1922) signed by the 29th President Warren G. Harding which stated:
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled THAT the United States of America favours the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected.”
The President-elect should unequivocally affirm his support for this resolution and its clear intent.
He needs to understand where the territorial boundaries of “Palestine” were located in 1922 and what has since happened to the allocation of sovereignty between Arabs and Jews in the length and breadth of that territory.
He has to recognise that the Jews now exercise sovereignty in 17% of Palestine, the Arabs exercise sovereignty in 77% of Palestine and that sovereignty remains unallocated between either Jews or Arabs in the remaining 6% now called the West Bank and Gaza.
He must appreciate that the history of Palestine did not start in 1948, that it was part of the territorial division of the Ottoman Empire after the defeat of Turkey in World War 1 - offering the Arab nation self determination in 99.99% of that liberated land and the Jewish people self determination in just 0.01% of such land.
He must acknowledge the body of international law that exists in relation to Palestine - starting with the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 - which the Arabs now need to finally accept since continuing rejection prevents any possible prospect of a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Jewish conflict.
Armed with this body of information President-elect Obama will understand why the two state solution and the Arab League Initiative never did, never could, and never will succeed. He should be able to conclude that changes in the Arab negotiating stance are necessary since pressing for 100% of your demands can never lead to a concluded agreement with your adversary.
President-elect Obama must carefully plan for the journey that awaits him before he turns the engine on.
Palestine - Fantasy And Fiction Feature At The United Nations
[Published November 2008]
The gross ignorance displayed by current United Nations General Assembly President - Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann - highlights the difficulty in having any kind of rational discussion at the United Nations about finally resolving Jewish and Arab claims to the territory once called Palestine.
Speaking on the Question of Palestine at the 57th Plenary Meeting at UN headquarters in New York on 24 November, President Brockmann stated (apparently without anyone present attempting to correct him) :
The President was demonstrably wrong in making this remarkable utterance.
Resolution 181 calling for the partition of western Palestine into one Jewish State and one Arab State was a resolution of the General Assembly not the Security Council. Being a General Assembly resolution it did not bind any member state of the United Nations - even those Arab States violently opposing it.
However many member states were concerned that Arab rejectionism of Resolution 181 could result in outright war and sought to qualify their support for Resolution 181 by seeking assurances that the Security Council would enforce the resolution once it was passed.
Resolution 181 therefore specifically requested
The subsequent invasion of western Palestine in May 1948 by the armies of all the Arab League members (excepting Yemen) - signalled open defiance of Resolution 181 by the Arab League and exposed the Security Council as a toothless tiger unwilling to stop this clear act of aggression by the Arab League in its campaign to wipe out the nascent Jewish State.
Yet the opportunity presented by Resolution 181 could still have been translated into reality between 1948 and 1967 - after the Jews living in Gaza and the West Bank had been driven out by the invading Arab armies leaving the solely Arab population under Egyptian and Jordanian occupation.
However instead of creating a state in the West Bank and Gaza in that 19 year window of opportunity and self determination for its exclusively Arab population - the United Nations bowed to Arab League pressure and perpetuated a refugee problem instead - haunting its thought processes on Palestine to this very day.
Yet worse was to come as President Brockmann continued his journey into Fantasyland by declaring:
Really?
The President of the General Assembly had obviously not read the debates of the General Assembly on 26 November 1947 when the Question of Palestine was being discussed. Had he done so he would have come across Uruguay’s representative - Rodriguez Fabregal - reminding those present on that day:
Not one of the hostile Arab delegations then present disputed Mr Fabregal’s statement of fact - namely that in 1946 Transjordan - with its exclusively Arab population - had been the first sovereign and fully independent state to be created in Palestine on territory that comprised 77% of Palestine.
Transjordan still exists today - having been renamed Jordan in 1950. Israel - established in 1948 comprises 17% of the former territory of Palestine. The West Bank and Gaza - in which sovereignty still remains undetermined - makes up the remaining 6% of what was once known as Palestine.
This historic truth makes a mockery of Arab propagandists and sympathisers who claim today that Israel comprises 78% of Palestine whilst Gaza and the West Bank comprise the remaining 22% of Palestine.
President Brockmann - revelling in his fictitious world - then appealed to member states :
President Brockmann’s blatant attempt to bury any explanation for this “central fact” indicates the extent to which he has become a victim of his own rhetoric and a guarantor for the continued mockery of the UN.
Resolution 181 was adopted on 29 November 1947 by a vote of 33 nations in favour , 13 against and 10 abstentions. Those against the resolution included Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen - the then entire membership of the Arab League with the exception of Transjordan.
Arab outrage at the proposed Resolution clearly failed to win the day in the General Assembly. The Arabs were simply not prepared to accept this overwhelming international support for Resolution 181. Their failure to do so has been the root cause for everything that has occurred since then in relation to Palestine.
Even today Articles 19 and 20 of the PLO Covenant proclaim that the partition of Palestine in 1947 was illegal and the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine and everything that has been based on them are deemed null and void.
Respect for this body of international law still has no place in the Arab lexicon.
This is the explanation President Brockmann did not have the moral courage to identify, face up to or address.
No amount of crocodile tears by President Brockmann - or those who have pushed proposals such as Oslo and the Road Map - can ever hope to succeed in bringing about a 22nd Arab State in all of the West Bank and Gaza.
This is the clear message to be understood on the 41st Anniversary of Resolution 181.
Redrawing the boundary lines between Israel, Egypt and Jordan to allocate sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza between them represents the last - and now the only - hope for peace between Jews and Arabs.
Until the United Nations abandons the notion of three states in former Palestine its image and prestige will continue to remain at rock bottom. It has become the victim of its own gutlessness.
It is indeed time for fact to replace fantasy and fiction at the United Nations.
Starting at the top with the President of the General Assembly would be a welcome first step in the right direction
The gross ignorance displayed by current United Nations General Assembly President - Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann - highlights the difficulty in having any kind of rational discussion at the United Nations about finally resolving Jewish and Arab claims to the territory once called Palestine.
Speaking on the Question of Palestine at the 57th Plenary Meeting at UN headquarters in New York on 24 November, President Brockmann stated (apparently without anyone present attempting to correct him) :
“No amount of arm twisting and intimidation will change the Security Council resolution 181, adopted 61 years ago, calling for the creation of two states”
The President was demonstrably wrong in making this remarkable utterance.
Resolution 181 calling for the partition of western Palestine into one Jewish State and one Arab State was a resolution of the General Assembly not the Security Council. Being a General Assembly resolution it did not bind any member state of the United Nations - even those Arab States violently opposing it.
However many member states were concerned that Arab rejectionism of Resolution 181 could result in outright war and sought to qualify their support for Resolution 181 by seeking assurances that the Security Council would enforce the resolution once it was passed.
Resolution 181 therefore specifically requested
“The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter, any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution; “
The subsequent invasion of western Palestine in May 1948 by the armies of all the Arab League members (excepting Yemen) - signalled open defiance of Resolution 181 by the Arab League and exposed the Security Council as a toothless tiger unwilling to stop this clear act of aggression by the Arab League in its campaign to wipe out the nascent Jewish State.
Yet the opportunity presented by Resolution 181 could still have been translated into reality between 1948 and 1967 - after the Jews living in Gaza and the West Bank had been driven out by the invading Arab armies leaving the solely Arab population under Egyptian and Jordanian occupation.
However instead of creating a state in the West Bank and Gaza in that 19 year window of opportunity and self determination for its exclusively Arab population - the United Nations bowed to Arab League pressure and perpetuated a refugee problem instead - haunting its thought processes on Palestine to this very day.
Yet worse was to come as President Brockmann continued his journey into Fantasyland by declaring:
“Shamefully there is no Palestinian state to celebrate today and the prospects are as distant as ever”
Really?
The President of the General Assembly had obviously not read the debates of the General Assembly on 26 November 1947 when the Question of Palestine was being discussed. Had he done so he would have come across Uruguay’s representative - Rodriguez Fabregal - reminding those present on that day:
“But this word “partition” is not new; it has not been suddenly introduced into the present debate on the question. It goes back further than that. The territory of the old League of Nations Mandate [ for Palestine] has already been divided; and an independent State has already been established in its territory. That new State, Transjordan, has already been considered as a candidate for admission by the competent organs of the United Nations”
Not one of the hostile Arab delegations then present disputed Mr Fabregal’s statement of fact - namely that in 1946 Transjordan - with its exclusively Arab population - had been the first sovereign and fully independent state to be created in Palestine on territory that comprised 77% of Palestine.
Transjordan still exists today - having been renamed Jordan in 1950. Israel - established in 1948 comprises 17% of the former territory of Palestine. The West Bank and Gaza - in which sovereignty still remains undetermined - makes up the remaining 6% of what was once known as Palestine.
This historic truth makes a mockery of Arab propagandists and sympathisers who claim today that Israel comprises 78% of Palestine whilst Gaza and the West Bank comprise the remaining 22% of Palestine.
President Brockmann - revelling in his fictitious world - then appealed to member states :
“All explanations notwithstanding, this central fact[no Palestinian state] makes a mockery of the United Nations and gravely hurts its image and prestige. How can we continue like this?”
President Brockmann’s blatant attempt to bury any explanation for this “central fact” indicates the extent to which he has become a victim of his own rhetoric and a guarantor for the continued mockery of the UN.
Resolution 181 was adopted on 29 November 1947 by a vote of 33 nations in favour , 13 against and 10 abstentions. Those against the resolution included Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen - the then entire membership of the Arab League with the exception of Transjordan.
Arab outrage at the proposed Resolution clearly failed to win the day in the General Assembly. The Arabs were simply not prepared to accept this overwhelming international support for Resolution 181. Their failure to do so has been the root cause for everything that has occurred since then in relation to Palestine.
Even today Articles 19 and 20 of the PLO Covenant proclaim that the partition of Palestine in 1947 was illegal and the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine and everything that has been based on them are deemed null and void.
Respect for this body of international law still has no place in the Arab lexicon.
This is the explanation President Brockmann did not have the moral courage to identify, face up to or address.
No amount of crocodile tears by President Brockmann - or those who have pushed proposals such as Oslo and the Road Map - can ever hope to succeed in bringing about a 22nd Arab State in all of the West Bank and Gaza.
This is the clear message to be understood on the 41st Anniversary of Resolution 181.
Redrawing the boundary lines between Israel, Egypt and Jordan to allocate sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza between them represents the last - and now the only - hope for peace between Jews and Arabs.
Until the United Nations abandons the notion of three states in former Palestine its image and prestige will continue to remain at rock bottom. It has become the victim of its own gutlessness.
It is indeed time for fact to replace fantasy and fiction at the United Nations.
Starting at the top with the President of the General Assembly would be a welcome first step in the right direction
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