WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT? PALARABS GETTING THEIR CUES FROM OBAMA
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3807098,00.html
Palestinians taking their cues from Israeli leaders, American president
Moshe Dann
Declarations of virtual Palestinian statehood by asking the UN and international community for diplomatic recognition are a blunt way of avoiding the requirements for statehood. According to the Montevideo Convention this includes: “(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other state … The primary interest of states is the conservation of peace.”
Recent declarations by Arab Palestinian leaders, however, are not new; Palestinian statehood was implied when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Included in various “peace plans” since 1967 and more recently in the “Road Map,” it has become a sacred fetish of the international community.
It was confirmed when Israel withdrew from Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, and from Gaza. Israeli political leaders gave their tacit approval to such a state when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton (in 2000) and then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush (in 2007) offered the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank, plus 3% of Israeli territory, most of eastern Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the “right of return” (to Israel) to a significant number of Arab Palestinians and their descendents currently living in UNRWA refugee camps. Palestinian leaders rejected the offer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar offer in 2009, breaking a long-standing Likud position and electoral promises.
It wasn’t enough, because Arab Palestinian leaders demanded – for starters – all of the territory acquired by Israel in 1967. It wasn’t enough because they demanded that the “right of return” be available to all Arabs and their descendents who claim to be displaced “refugees” – a population which now is nearly equal to the number of Jews in Israel.
It wasn’t enough because, according to Arabs, the “occupation of Arab land” did not begin in 1967, but in 1948 – the “Nakba” (catastrophe) – when the State of Israel was established. “Palestinian sovereignty†begins but does not end with the 1949 ceasefire (armistice) lines. It is grounded in the elimination of “the Zionist entity” – all of it.
“Palestinian sovereignty,” therefore, is the raison d’etre of all Palestinian terrorist groups, including their political representatives.
‘You criminals deserve nothing’
A sovereign “Palestinian state†is the goal of US-sponsored, General Keith Dayton-led “Palestinian armed forces.†It is the goal of myriad US and EU-sponsored NGOs which oppose and defame Israel.
Granting Arab Palestinians a sovereign state is the sole issue that defines “the Left†in Israel. It’s the “dream” of some, so why should anyone be surprised, or concerned now? That it wasn’t negotiated – i.e. with concessions, that Palestinian leaders refused to play the game of waiting for the prize and accepting less, indicates their commitment. They took their cues from Israeli politicians and the media, and now, from President Obama.
As long as Israeli leftists are so intent on giving away the “West Bank” and Gaza, especially in brutally destroying thriving Jewish communities, as long as the IDF and Israeli police destroy Jewish homes, while allowing Arab homes a few hundred meters away to remain, why should anyone blame Arab Palestinian leaders for getting the message: it’s yours!
As long as Israeli jurists, courts and the media condemn Israeli Jews for “illegally occupying Arab Palestinian land,” why shouldn’t Palestinian leaders conclude that the land is theirs?
As long as President Shimon Peres – who is supposed to represent all Israelis — organizes conferences that promote Palestinian sovereignty, and his Peres Center for Peace advocates Palestinian statehood, why shouldn’t Palestinians proclaim sovereignty?
As long as Israeli politicians beg their Arab counterparts to accept a deal, “land for peace,” based on Israel’s admitted illegal “occupation,” what should one expect?
“Ah, we wanted something in exchange,†Israelis who advocate Palestinian sovereignty would say, like a thief who expects a reward for returning what he has stolen. “Shame on you Israelis,†Arab Palestinian leaders reply. “You criminals deserve nothing!’â€
For Arab Palestinians the goal is not and never was “peace,” but erasing their humiliation, ending the “occupation,” eliminating of the Zionist entity and everything for which it stands.
This is not a matter for compromise and negotiations, but bold and decisive action. For four decades Israel refused to declare sovereignty over areas it acquired in 1967; Arab Palestinians are well on the way to fill that vacuum.
Arab Palestinian leaders who do not strive for sovereignty over all of Palestine are considered traitors; for many Israelis, those who demand secure and defensible borders, who advocate extending Israeli sovereignty, are fools and crackpots. Mea culpa.
The author is a writer and journalist living in Israel
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