Pro -Israel protesters outside Paris Conference
The Paris peace conference designed to be another slap at Israel turned into a farce devoid of meaning. It certainly didn't have the kick Barack Obama and John Kerry intended.
Instead of strengthening the insidious UNSC 2334, it actually buried it and made it ridiculous.
UNSC 2334, as biased as it was, had reiterated the Security Council’s:
“vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,”
The final Paris communique threw away this “two democratic states solution” and changed it to:
“that a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, is the only way to achieve enduring peace.”
They eliminated 'democratic' 9 times in the final communique. This seems self-evident because neither the Palestinian Authority or Hamasistan are democratic in the least, but the Paris communique not accepting the terms of the “two-state solution” proposed by the Security Council gives the lie to the whole enterprise and takes the mask off, weakening 2334's clout.
It also reaffirmed that the only way to any settlement was direct negotiations between the parties rather than a UN diktat, which 2334 most assuredly did not do.
There's also no followup, and no new demands of Israel.
The Paris statement did praise Saudi Arabia's 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as "a comprehensive framework for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, thus contributing to regional peace and security." That's to be expected. But since it was a diktat that mimics 2334 in re-dividing Jerusalem and gifting all of Judea and Samaria to 'Palestine' and the Israelis will never abide by that anyway, it's meaningless...just like the entire conference.
Surprisingly, Britain refused to ratify the Paris statement, thus blocking the EU from signing on to it. Australia refused as well, as did most of the Eastern European EU members.
And even France's lame duck president Hollande changed his tune, saying that only negotiations between the two parties would result in peace, which 'cannot be dictated.'
What changed things? In part at least, Donald Trump:
In a recent interview with Bild and the Times of London, Trump said he hoped the UK would veto any anti-Israel resolution at the UN Security Council.
“The Brits read what Trump said and implemented it immediately,” an unnamed European diplomat who attended Monday’s EU meeting told Haaretz.
Quite simply, Trump explained that Obama was on his way out in a week or so, and there was a new sheriff in town. It's no coincidence that British PM Theresa May is now exulting over offers of new trade deals outside the EU with America.
The Australians and the most of the Eastern European countries were always on board with Israel anyway. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was fairly open about saying that the Turnball government didn't think much of 2334 and even less of the Paris communique:
Without specifically mentioning the conference's endorsement of resolution 2334, Ms Bishop noted the Coalition did not support "one-sided resolutions targeting Israel".
"The most important priority must be a resumption of direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians for a two-state solution as soon as possible," she said.
Australia became one of the few countries other than Israel to condemn the New Zealand-sponsored resolution 2334, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull labeling it "one-sided" and "deeply unsettling".
U,S, Secretary of State John Kerry phoned Israeli PM Netanyahu and promised that the U.S. would not support any further UN action at tomorrow's UN Security Council Meeting, to which Netanyahu reportedly replied that Israel has already suffered enough damage thanks to the U.S. abstention on 2334.
It's the part about Kerry promising something is what has me concerned...stay tuned.
UPDATE: The UNSC meeting turned out to be nothing. Except for Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon ripping the UN for encouraging (encouraging? try financing amd abetting) Palestinian terrorism and intransigence.
I imagine that the phones of U N council members have been ringing off the hook with Kerry or Obama on the other end stating that Obama is still the president until noon Friday and that things must be done as Obama says until then and after because after all, the despot has laid landmines in the way of anything POTUS45 intends to achieve.
ReplyDeleteOf course, in between Obama will continue for the next day and likely well into the night writing checks and executive orders.
The whole thing is a farce.