If U.N. was an Honest Broker
Palestinian State Could be Tied
To Unconditional Israel Acceptance
by Dan Ehrlich 



The endless Arab-Israeli soap opera has the Palestinians saying, in the absence of peace talks, they intend to go ahead with their plans to get the UN to declare their statehood. If the UN was an honest broker this could work out to every one's advantage.

What the the UN could do is make Palestinian statehood contingent on the Palestinians formally accepting Israel as a reality and enacting a peace treaty between the two countries. The exact borders, as President Obama said, could be worked out later. The important thing would be unconditional acceptance of each other.

Even though this is a long shot, America's UN ambassador should strongly propose this plan. Why is it a long shot? First, as I said  the UN is no longer seen as an honest broker in the Middle East since its filled with Muslim and other Third World members. But more than this Palestinian leader Mahmood Abbas wouldn't accept a non conditional deal.
Conditions Wrecked Past Talks
The hallmark of all negotiations on this conflict has been Palestinian conditions and asterisks that have derailed past talks. It's a big reason why many Israelis question whether Abbas really wants peace at all or simply a deal that would weaken Israel.

One positive advantage for Israel of Palestinian statehood would be the neccessity for such a country to keep the peace...No one would stand for a new state being a state terror. However, if terrorist attacks continued from such a state, Israel would then have a perfect right to respond in any way it deemed appropriate.

In his speech on the region Obama called for a Palestinian state based on the pre 1967 borders. This is a thorny item to include but not as bad as what he didn’t mention…. the fate of about 5 million Palestinian refugees who have been waiting in camps 63 years throughout much of the Arab world.

They have been waiting for the promised annihilation of the Jews by the divine forces of Islam and their return to that land.

He also didn’t mention the fate of Jerusalem, which has derailed past peace talks.

So, now Palestinian honcho Mahmood Abbas and Co. plan to head to the UN and demand statehood on the basis of their initial demands for all of the West Bank and Gaza, using Obama’s own words as their reference. But, they may also demand a resolution to the refugee issue and to have Jerusalem declared their capital.
Obama Warns Abbas on Going to U.N.
Hearing of this, the President warned Abbas his action would be a big mistake...that his state could only take shape through negotiations with Israel.

Of course, in the end nothing will be resolved in the short-term. But a legal situation will exist for the future. Unlike we in the West who demand instant results, the Arabs will wait until hell freezes over to get the result they want.

However, word has been received from the late Osama bin Laden that hell is becoming colder, the results of America's economic and military problems while his Iranian friends seem to be getting stronger. Since the Arabs are the type of people who bend with the wind, the Palestinians will wait until the chill wind from hell is blowing their way.

And the result they want is no Jewish state…just a greater Palestine such as existed after WW1, taking in all Israel and Jordan…which is already 80 percent, Palestinian.

The big problem now for the Palestinians is the upheaval going on throughout much of the 22 nation Arab League, which is the real power behind Abbas. Until the protest and changes of governments take place, the Palestinians are operating largely on their own. Even Saudi Arabia has more pressing domestic problems to confront than worry about Palestinians.

Before the Obama-Netanyahu meeting liberal commentators were predicting Israel would never make the concessions needed for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Why isn’t same pressure put on the Palestinian leadership by the US and European Union as is visited on Israel? You never hear about a rift between Obama and Abbas. And we didn’t hear Obama mention the refugee issue. If Obama wants tone taken seriously he has to cover all the bases. These two glaring omissions merely complicate things even more.
Palestinian Demands, Pressure on Israel
What we hear is Palestinian demands and calls for American pressure on Israel to meet these and their demands. All this makes one wonder if we are living in an inverse universe akin to science fiction where, as in Bob Dylan’s song, “The loser now will be later to win.”

A screenplay could be like this: Wars of annihilation are waged against Israel by a region of religious bigots. Yet Israel wins these wars and land in the process. But, thanks to big power involvement, the Arabs losers expect to be winners in the end since they aren’t forced to deal with Israel, rather nations such as America, Russia and various European countries, acting as surrogates or proxies for the Palestinians, who are really a proxy of the Arab League.

President Obama’s Middle East objectives seem sensible. But his mistake in dealing with the Palestinians is the same error made by other US presidents…thinking as westerners supposedly negotiating with honorable people seeking a lasting a peace with Israel and not realizing or acknowledging what’s the end game.

Yet, he is willing to risk it because it’s not his skin at stake. What is political convenience for America to score points with the Muslim world could be a life and death decision for Israel.

Every time a deal between Israel and the Palestinians has been near, another demand appeared and caused a collapse of the negotiations. The late PLO leader Yasser Arafat was noted for doing this.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to budge of the 1967 cease fire lines is largely because he knows giving in on this would only encourage the Palestinians to make further demands.

The problem of the West Bank is small when compared to the greater Palestinian refugee problem…one that was created by the Arab nation fighting wars with Israel.
Refugee Population has Mushroomed
It was the Arab nations, confident of victory, which rejected peace in favor of wars, which resulted in successive waves of refugees. The 750,000 Palestinian refugees created 63-years-ago has multiplied to 5 million today scattered in now permanent camps located in countries bordering Israel.

The short and long-term goal of the Arab League is the have these people return to Israel, thereby doing to this mainly Jewish entity what the sudden influx in the early 1970s of Arafat’s Palestinians did to Lebanon. This would effectively destroy the country, which in Lebanon’s case was predominantly Maronite Christian, leaving it as a chaotic canonized entity similar to the original 1947 UN plan the Arabs rejected.

That aside, these refugees have been the victims of cynical heartless manipulation and exploitation by their Arab hosts. In 1959, the Arab League passed Resolution 1457, which states: “The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries.”

That stunning resolution is unique in that no other ethnic or religious group in the world denies citizenship to its own kind and keeps them stateless. Yet the UN has never condemned this form of apartheid. And, you never hear Abbas complaining about it to his League masters.

Tashbih Sayyed, a fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized Arab nations for making the children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees second class citizens in Lebanon, Syria, or the Gulf States, and said that the refugees "cling to the illusion that defeating the Jews will restore their dignity".

Unmentioned whenever this subject is brought up are the more than 500,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were literally driven out of their historic communities by Muslims incensed by the defeat of Islam at the hands of the Infidel. However, these refugees were welcomed into Israel.
US Doesn't Press Arabs to Accept Refugees as Citizens
What Obama and Hillary never talk about are any efforts, or lack of them, through the UN and the international community, to pressure the Arab League to kill this edict and begin assimilating Palestinians into their massive and largely empty land masses. The President passed up a chance during his Mid East speech and talk with Netanyahu.

In fact, just the opposite has happened. Around 400,000 Palestinian workers living in Kuwait received a second shock when they were kicked out that country after Operation Desert Storm. This was a result of Arafat’s big mouth in backing Saddam Hussein.

Jordan supports a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza in hope such a state would drain much if its majority Palestinian population. Yet Jordan remains a big question mark. Because there’s a distinct possibility such a state might eventually want to re-link with Jordan, replacing the Hashemite Kingdom with a Palestinian super state. Much of this depends on how attractive the King can make his government seem to the Palestinians in his country.

In the end, it still stacks up at little Israel (7 million), with no oil vs. the Arab world (300 million) and most of the Earth’s oil. Can you blame Netanyahu for playing the hard man?

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