Palestinian Fantasy Land
On November 29th, a remarkable 138 United Nations members voted in favor of granting Palestine the status of a “nonmember observer state,” and another 41 UN members abstained. Only nine countries voted against the resolution: Canada, the Czech Republic, Israel, Panama, the United States, and a smattering of Pacific island nations. Even many countries known for being quite friendly with Israel decided not to oppose Palestinian recognition. In Latin America, for example, Colombia and Guatemala abstained, while Costa Rica voted yes. (Less than a year ago, Tablet magazine reported that Guatemala was “considered a reliable vote against Palestinian bids for recognition.” So much for that.) In Europe, Britain and Germany abstained, while France and Italy voted yes. (A senior Israeli diplomat told McClatchy that the German abstention “was truly a shock.”)
While the UN vote was widely hailed as a “symbolic” victory for the Palestinians, it was a major setback for the Middle East peace process. After all, the 1993 Oslo Accords stipulate that the Palestinians must negotiate their statehood with Israel. Thus, every country that either endorsed recognition or abstained from voting was effectively encouraging the Palestinians to disregard their Oslo obligations and continue harboring dangerous delusions.
Moreover, the vote was a massive triumph for Hamas, which remains committed to Israel’s destruction. Even Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, a member of the rival Fatah faction, acknowledged that UN recognition had vindicated the Hamas strategy of using violence rather than peaceful diplomacy. “Hamas delivered,” he said after the vote. “Hamas has won.”
Not surprisingly, Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar was happy to crow about his organization’s growing credibility among Palestinians. “The most important fact that has emerged from this is Hamas’s ability to convince all Palestinians of our way,” he declared. “We gave Fatah a full opportunity to implement its way, and it failed.”
By emboldening a terrorist group and convincing Palestinians that Hamas-style violence produces results, the UN vote made it more likely that Israel will soon find itself fighting another war in the Gaza Strip, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2006 and used as a launching pad for thousands of rocket attacks against Israel. During the last month’s war, Hamas and its loyalists were also firing long-range missiles made in Iran, according to Palestinian Islamic Jihad deputy leader Ziad Nakhleh. Meanwhile, armed thugs were viciously murdering those Gazans suspected of “collaborating” with Israel. New York Times correspondent Jodi Rudoren reported that the body of one suspected collaborator was “dragged through a Gaza City neighborhood by motorcycle,” and another one was “left for crowds to gawk over in a traffic circle.”
The November 2012 Gaza war should have dispelled all illusions about the true nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Remember, Israel withdrew all its settlers and all its security personnel from Gaza in 2005, which means that Palestinians have had more than seven years to build a functioning polity and demonstrate their commitment to a lasting peace. But instead they have supported a brutal terrorist outfit that rejects a two-state solution and promotes genocidal fantasies of conquering Israel by force. It should now be crystal clear that the Palestinians are not yet prepared to negotiate a genuine peace agreement. Indeed, when we consider that the combined impact of the 2012 war and the UN recognition vote gave Hamas a significant popularity boost, the prospects for peace seem more distant than ever.
Unfortunately, foreign governments in Europe and elsewhere seem unwilling to concede that the biggest obstacle to Middle East peace is Palestinian rejectionism. It’s much easier simply to castigate Israel for its settlement policy. Earlier this month, for example, European governments expressed their dismay over Israel’s decision to approve new housing construction in various parts of East Jerusalem and the surrounding West Bank suburbs. But as Commentary blogger Jonathan Tobin noted, the new construction will occur “in areas that everyone knows [Israel] would keep if there was a deal in place.” In other words, “Jewish housing in the disputed areas is no more of an obstacle to peace than the far greater Arab housing boom in other parts of Jerusalem.”
If and when the Palestinians truly embrace a two-state compromise, there will be plenty of time for both sides to wrangle over their precise borders. But for now, the settlements are a distraction from the real problem, which is the refusal by Hamas — and large segments of Palestinian society — to accept Israel’s basic right to exist. After the UN statehood vote, that problem will be even worse.
(You can read this article in Spanish here.)
Please explain to me, in simple one syllable words, why you want one more arab terrorist, but then I repeat myself, reichlet?
The arabs, be they muslim or christian, are antisemitic.
The few that still permit Jews to live, let them live only as third class residents.
If, Israel were no longer a viable state. The arabs would still try to kill all Jews worldwide.
So, again, in simple one syllable words, explain,why you want one more arab terrorist ‘state’?
This comment was in ragrds to your concern over the Oslo process of pieces that the world foisted on Israel, with all its supposed benefits of normalization.
Just ask Tom Friedman, NYT wizard, who will explain in detail why it’s ALWAYS Israels’ fault.
Or maybe ask Zbig or Jimmy the pea-brain.
So when the native americans were doing all they could to save their land and way of life thay were really terrorists?
Regardless of all the pomp and circumstance the historical truth is what it is. And many Israelis – except for the die hard left and the Arab sector – in the majority public are up in arms over Arafat’s henchman’s putsch.
And aside from the fact that his gambit, at the UN, violated the BASIC tenet of the Oslo Peace/Death Accords, the facts are not on Abbas’s/Abu Mazen’s side and they are backed up by Arab leaders too – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/09/27/another-arab-leader-spills-the-beans-the-palestinians-as-a-separate-people-do-not-exist-adina-kutnicki/
Adina, what do you make of Bibi pretending to the world that he is building new settlemnts, when he isn’t? Shouldn’t he be doing the opposite.
BTW, thank you Barack hussein for this new present.
The “Oslo Peace Accords” aka the Peace Process never had more than absolute zero chance of success. At absolute zero, -273 degrees Kelvin, all molecular motion stops. Any “Palestinian” movement toward peace has never existed and never will.
It is truly mind boggling that the elite, smart guys think that if they pretend that they don’t see this something will change.
I simply can’t believe that any rational person who has been able to rise to a position of power is so utterly stupid that they can’t see this.
I think what is actually at work here is a complete moral cowardice that is unwilling to oppose what it knows is wrong and stand up for what it knows is right.
I dunno. I think the only time since Islam was born that the West has had any peace was when Islam was fighting against itself.
Give the Palestinians a state with a corridor between the West Bank and Gaza, and watch Hamas and Fatah fight each other.
And cut Israel in half?
The TWO-STATE-SOLUTION is merely one more JewHate canard. It should so be treated. Israel just rolls on and has the best peace, no different from the peace that lots of other nations experience.
Certainly, nations such as Germany, Japan, Russia, arab nations, U.K., France, Poland, India, and this list goes on and on, experience the same kind of peace. They all get by, as does Israel.
All countries since ancient times have experienced the same. We speak here of simmering neighboring hostile attitudes, periodic border flare ups, occasional wars, and controllable terror, diplomatic confrontations. All in the days’ experiences.
Israel actually can be shown to be profiting from this only better than most of these other nations. Even during the BDS movements, wars, border confrontations, and all the rest, this nation has simply grown stronger, more powerful, strategically important, technologically advanced, with more educated population, powerful military, well-developed startup and stable economy, well self-financed, a space program that is quite successful, development of its own natural gas and oil fields, diplomatic relations with 133 countries, and this by taking in stride JewHatred (a sickness, actually) and all the rest that has been tossed its way.
The point is: what the arabs with the fake name of palestinians whether by violence or diplomatic war have lost their battle against the Jews of Israel. There never has, isn’t now, nor will there ever be, a terror base living side by side with this democracy Israel.
Israelis note all of this and just keep moving from strength to strength. It must purely drive all the JewHaters of this work CRAZY! Too bad for them…..
All this means is that there will be another war. Israel has tried the “land for peace” approach in the past and Hamas steadfastly clings to its idiotic “obliterate Israel” mantra. Truth is, they don’t want peace and never have, so this time Israel needs to finish them off.
It should be obvious that the two state solution will never work. From the beginning the extremist side of the Arab population would not agree to two states. They not only want it all for themselves but also want to see the Jews dead. This fact has not changed. Israel would have to be suicidal to go along with any “solution” that would give those with published genocidal goals a foothold in their country.
Hurting the peace process is like hurting the flight ability of pigs.
Netanyahu’s announcement was nuts – he made everyone think he was going to create a new settlement, when in fact the area is part of an existing “settlement” (actually a city, Ma’alei Adumim, mostly non-religious) and he’s promised to build there several times before. If only he had actually promised to build a couple of NEW settlements.
The Arabs pretend to be moderates and are actually extremists. We pretend to be extremists, and act like moderates. No wonder people think the Arabs are lying to their own people in Arabic; Bibi lies to us in Hebrew.
The “peace process” recieved its final death blow when George Bush insisted on Palestinian elections in 2006 against the wishes of Fatah and Israel. That is the last election the Palestinians will ever know and any talk of negotiated peace since is just a macabre act for the world stage.
How can the PA create its “secular, democratic” state that it promised if they are afraid to hold elections? That alone gives the lie to it.
We managed, here in Israel, to require a plebiscite before giving up territory. I would like to see any agreement require a majority on the Arab side also. Otherwise, what value does it have?
The only people living in fantasy land are those who think the peace process was ever really about peace.
For the Arab side it was always about weakening Israeli resolve and reducing Israel’s borders until the moment when the Arabs were strong enough to finish the job.
For the Israeli side it was always about making just enough concessions to buy some tranquility for a little longer and hoping the Arabs would collapse under their own primitive savagery or if that didn’t happen, letting the future generations deal with the inevitable clash. Seeing what’s happening in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya, it is still too soon to say which prediction is right.
the comments on here make me feel a little better- at least some people know what’s what- at any other forum and coccasionally here all I get is the usual jewhater revsionism, and Fakestinians as victims, the upside down backwards view of reality.
Neis Gadol Hiyah Sham (A great miracle happened here)
Poh.:-)
Sham = there, Poh = Here. That’s why Israeli dereiels have a Peh instead of a Shin.
Your conclusion is-desperately – naive, and sums up your ” wishful thinking ” attitude.Why do you still need to write such a conclusion ” If and when the palestinians embrace a two-state compromise ..”? Do you want to believe DESPITE what you have just wrote before that conclusion, that the reality IS NOT what you see but WHAT YOU DREAM IT WILL BE one day ?
Actually you are still – as so many jews and israelis – clinging to the illusion of the peace process despite it is a non-starter.The Oslo agreements were just a Trojan Horse.The only strategy if you want peace is to destroy Hamas, reoccupy Gush Katif and the philadelphia corridor and clean the gaza from all the arms and weapons .Herculean task but necessary.The oslo Trojan horse set back Israel historical timeclock back to 1948 and almost everything that was gained between 1948 and 1993 is in danger.
What I expect to eventually occur is that there will be a new nation created called Palestine. However, much like the scorpion in the fable “The scorpion and the frog” the Arabs living in Palestine will be totally unable to contain themselves and will continue to fire their rockets, missiles and mortars into Israel. Now, however, with a state of Palestine, the Israeli’s will finally have an opportunity to put a real hurting on the terrorists in control of that state as they invade and drive the terrorists out and into Jordan which is where they belong anyway.
There was a place called Palistine, It was taken and given to the jews and re named Israel
The Muslim Arab Invaders already have TWO States in the ‘Mandate of Palestine’ why should a third State for an imaginary people who never existed before Yasser Arafat the Egyptian Arab INVENTED them in the 60′s. Whats more to the point why should this state be carved out of Israel who are already existing on a far smaller portion of the Mandate than the League of Nations and its successor the UN wanted them , as the INDIGENOUS people, to occupy. Muslim Arabs originate as their name implies in Arabia and only came to the Holy Land in the 7th and 8th Century, as part of Islams expansion by the sword.The indigenous Jews on the other hand have been living in what was an unwanted virtually empty desert area for well over 3000 years.
BTW its not about land, it has never been about land. But of course Islamic Taqiyya allows Muslims to LIE about this. The land claim is just a good excuse for Muslims to practice antisemitism which is an essential part of Islam. Read the Koran (to a Muslim the ACTUAL and UNALTERABLE words of their satanic allah) , Islam will never be satisfied until ALL the Jews are dead and ALL Kaffirs either convert to Islam or become tribute paying Dhimmi’s and Islam rules the world.