The UN has finally taken the step of openly endorsing 'Palestine'. In response to the PLO's request, the General Assembly issued Resolution 67/19, giving 'Palestine' observer status, which means it is a non-voting member who can join other international bodies like UNICEF or the International Criminal Court.
Prior to the vote, Mahmoud Abbas made a typical speech in which he accused Israel of racism numerous times. Coming from the lips of a man whose thesis at Moscow University denied that the Holocaust occurred, this added yet another touch of comedy to the proceedings.
There was never any doubt about the outcome. Given the 51 nation OIC Muslim bloc, those nations like France, Sweden and others with a restive Muslim population and those they were able to influence, Abbas was certain to get what he asked for. The UN General Assembly could probably be relied on to pass a resolution saying Jews had horns on their heads with a decent majority.
What the UN did, essentially, was to flush two international treaties, the Oslo Accords and The Road Map down the toilet, as if they never existed. The resolution unilaterally grants Abbas and the PLO statehood status and 'the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967' ( never mind that there was no 'Palestinian territory' at that time) 'including East Jerusalem' without any pretense of negotiating anything whatsoever. No surprises there, since that's been the PLO's real position all along.
Even more farcically, the resolution calls for 'the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process.'
After what the UN General Assembly claims it granted to the PLO in this resolution, why would they suppose there's anything left to negotiate? Who makes the best felafel? And why would the Israelis even bother, seeing how the PLO and the so-called international community regards treaties and agreements when it concerns Jews and Israel?
Abbas and the PLO, of course, are not stopping with just East Jerusalem. As they've said before, they want all of it eventually, and free of Jews. In the victory celebration at Ramallah, Abbas made a speech and claimed that one day, "the Palestinian flag would fly over Jerusalem, its eternal capitol".
(Fatah leader Abbas Zaki's speech on Palestinian TV courtesy of PMW)
The ululations,the flag waving, the cries of 'itbah al-Yahood'('kill the Jews') and the sound of guns being fired into the air might have seemed festive,but all they really were was a celebration at the funeral.
Abbas accomplished a number of things, but none of them are going to lead to an independent Palestinian state.
The majority of Israelis fully realize now, except for the bitter enders on the left, that Oslo is over.It always was a fantasy, but one that a certain amount of people clung to. For the most part, they know better now. Even more, it has strengthened the position of those who always argued that 'land for peace' and 'the two state solution' were ridiculous policies doomed to failure. After all, how can you negotiate anything with someone to whom agreements and treaties mean nothing? Especially when they expect tangible things like land in exchange for words on paper?
The European reaction - with France avidly pushing this and influencing countries like Spain, Italy and Portugal, who are dependent of France's good graces for eurozone bailouts likewise has convinced Israel that future concessions 'for peace' with the EU's reaction in mind are a waste of time.
The Israelis have already started taking concrete steps with this in mind.
Israel's government has now approved plans to build 3,000 homes in an area known as E-1, essentially a small mountain area traversed by a highway between Jerusalem and the Jewish community of Ma'ale Adumim.
No one whom identifies themselves as Palestinian has ever lived there, and it's barren except for a police station along the highway. It's always been public land.
But as can be seen from the map, it connects two Jewish communities in a contiguous bloc..so the Israelis held off building on it for years in order to give peace negotiations a chance. No more. After all, what do they have to gain any more by waiting? An Israeli community in E-1 is going to make a significant difference in any land available for 'Palestine'.
The Israelis have also approved a 1,600 home building project in the Ramat Shlomo area of Jerusalem:
Ramat Shlomo is one of five Jerusalem ring neighborhoods, along with Gilo, Ramot, Pisgat Zev, and East Talpiyot, which are located across the 1967 Green Line. The District Planning and Construction Committee last discussed the project in August of 2011, during the height of the social justice tent protests, when Yishai trumpeted the project as a way to build affordable housing for young people.
Even if there had been a sincere effort at negotiations by Abbas, there was no way Israel was ever going to redivide Jerusalem again or allow Fatah gunmen within firing range of these neighborhoods. This just makes it official.
The U.S. State department, along with a number of European foreign offices ( apparently at President Obama's instigation) condemned the projects, but since most of the UN General Assembly chose to legitimize an unelected regime that has signed a aaliance with a genocidal organization both the EU and U.S. list officially as a terrorist group, there's not much to say,at least from the Israeli standpoint. It was never a reality anyway, but what happened at the UN was a clear message that the idea of two states living next to each other in peace is over.
Israel has also said that it will start withholding the tax monies it collects for the Palestinian Authority, about $100 million per month and applying them to the huge unpaid bills owed to Israel for electricity and water. Perhaps the PA could make up some of the difference by stopping salary payments to convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons, or by cutting Sufa Arafat's lavish allowance in Paris from $100,000 per month down to oh, say $10,000. And of course Abbas, his sons and the rest of the Fatah Old Guard could simply steal less.
The grimmest joke of all is that 'Palestine', Abbas and the Palestinian Authority wouldn't last for more than a month without Israel.
It is the IDF that guards the security of the PA's territory and keeps Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood elements at bay.Without that protection, Fatah would be dependent on the small army U.S. General Keith Dayton armed and trained. You saw how they fared against Hamas in Gaza the last time, aside from the fact that it's an open secret that Abbas' security forces have been thoroughly infiltrated by Hamas sympathizers. Israel protects Abbas and the PA because the U.S. wants it that way and because the Israelis don't want Hamas in control right next door.
More than 40% of Gaza's water and electricity comes via Israel, and the bills are never paid. In the Arab occupied areas of Judea and Samaria, it's 100%. Israel does this, again, because the U.S. and the international community want it that way, it was built into Oslo and the Road Map and Israel hasn't wanted to deal with the diplomatic fallout.
Now with the international community gutting those treaties, the Israelis would be well within their rights to simply hit the switch, and they might just do it.
The entire idea of 'Palestine' provoking Israel by taking this and other steps is farcical, as well as a death knell for the idea of an independent Palestine. The Israelis are holding all the cards, and only they have the ability to allow a Palestinian state next door.
After what just happened at the UN, they realize they'd be fools to do so.
The EU can continue to fund 'Palestine' as long as it likes, and I'm sure President Obama will bypass Congress again to see to it that Abbas and his friends continue to get their jirzyah. But no one is going to go to war for 'Palestine', least of all the Arabs.
From now on, every provocation by 'Palestine' will get an appropriate answer..or to quote Israeli PM Netanyahu, "There will be no Palestinian State until Israel is recognized as a Jewish State, alongside a resolution to end the conflict.Unilateral actions by the Palestinians will be answered by unilateral actions by Israel."
Admittedly, some of those reactions are likely to be over the top. But the Palestinians and their groupies in the international community are going to be the ones to blame in that instance, no matter how it gets spun. Oslo might have been on life support, but it was the UN that pulled the plug.
The Oslo era is over, and so, at least for now, is an independent Palestine. All of the flag waving,speeches and posturing were just a celebration at the funeral.
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