Arab League Moves its Pawns
Palestinians Seek Unworkable State from UN
Without Recognizing its Vital Benefactor
by Dan Ehrlich

Recognition for Recognition =Unconditional Peace: Why Not?
In a few days the United Nations will be asked by the Palestinian Authority to proclaim a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Gaza Strip and in Jerusalem. As flawed as this arrangement may be, any such proclamation should be tied to the Palestinian Authority recognizing Israel with a peace treaty, something that would be constructive in ending this conflict.

This probably won’t happen because there is more in play here than simple politics. There’s the East and West mindsets that don’t have much in common.

Every year in the Palestinian territories several so-called honor killings take place. They’re usually women who compromise their family honor by committing personal acts we wouldn’t think twice about in the West.
http://kinziblogs.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/dis-honor-killing-in-palestine-ayas-murder-sparks-change/

I bring this up because it actually sheds light on the actual reason why the Arab-Israel Conflict has been going on for so long. This isn’t a conflict about land rights as much as it is about honor, unredeemed honor the Arabs have lost to Israel in wars and by the Jewish state still existing.

The 1948 resurrection of Israel has proven one sorry fact: Poverty level peasant based theocracies, with an invincible view of their faith’s worldwide pre-eminence, can’t or won’t happily exist next to affluent progressive democracies...in this case, one that has been demonized for generations by regional dictators.

If you have to designate a villain in this conflict it isn’t Israel or the Palestinians. It’s the Arab League, which has used the Palestinians as its pawns for generations.
The Real Villains of this Tragedy
It was the Arab League that was against Jordan and Egypt annexing the West Bank and Gaza after Israel won the 1948 war. Its wish was to keep these people dispossessed and brainwashed with a hatred of Israel and engaged in a never-ending war of liberation.

Yet, to this day, Jordan is the only Arab nation to buck the League and offer Palestinians citizenship in its sparsely populated land. And, oddly, some League members may have secretly relished Israel's victory in 1967 because it created the occupied  Palestinian territories leaving its residents people without a country, which is what the League had wanted in 1948.

In 1959 the Arab League passed Resolution 1457 http://frontpagemag.com/2011/06/03/the-story-of-arab-apartheid/ which denies citizenship to Palestinian refuges living in Arab countries, a unique law in that no other religious or ethnic group discriminates in such a way against its own people.

This has led us to the reality that peace between the Arab world and Israel will not happen until Arab populations are properly educated and materially affluent. Remember, affluent, intelligent democracies don't make war on each other. Until that time, if ever, Israel will remain the right country in the wrong place.

The Palestinian Authority, which doesn’t recognize Israel, a country set-up by the United Nations, will ask that same body to proclaim its statehood composed of the West Bank of the Jordan (formerly part of Jordan), Gaza Strip (formerly part of Egypt) and East Jerusalem.

And will this new state be called the Republic of Palestine? That’s a Roman provincial name placed on what was once a Jewish nation in an effort to eradicate the Jewish presence there. If the Palestinians are indigenous to the region, why maintain a Roman identity?

Yet, this will be more symbolic political move rather than a fait accompli pushed by the Arab League, the puppet master that has pulled the strings of Palestinians for generations.
Reality is Palestinians will Need Israel
All posturing and demands by Palestinians for their own state won't change the reality that they will have to maintain a dependence on a state they hate for their very survival.

They will have to deal with Israelis, work for Israelis, sell to Israelis and buy from Israelis. And eventually if they become affluent and well educated, they may stop attacking the Israelis. If they don't, any independent Palestinian state will be short lived.

I have long felt a roadblock to peace has been big power involvement in the region. If the Palestinians, for example didn't have America or Russia as arbitrators and ombudsmen they would have been forced to deal directly with Israel and wouldn't be able to dodge issues such as acknowledging Israel even exists.

Now, according to the New York Times, Europe is exerting more pressure and influence in the Middle East http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/world/middleeast/21mideast.html as America pulls away from the region...we have more than enough problems at home. And so do most of the European nations, for that matter.   http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/wp424_middle_east.pdf

But Europe's close proximity to the region and its dependence on its oil has long kept the Continent's attention and concern. The elder President Bush had little trouble enlisting many European nations to liberate Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion in 1991.

Yet Europe acted as effete observers during the bloodbath in Bosnia shortly after Operation Desert Storm...Now, Europe has led the air assault on Libya, something it jumped into even though this is a civil war. Do you think oil is a major factor in Europe's actions?

Nation's inject themselves in foreign events because there is either a perceived economic of strategic interest to do so. The public may be led to believe these are for humanitarian concerns, but usually this reason is a popular smokescreen for a geo-political motive.
Oil the Only Interest in the Region
Europe and America's only reason to concern themselves with feudal nations existing on a different planet from the rest of us is oil. And since the oil stoppage after the 1973 Arab-Israel war, the western nations have been hoping that a peace between the two sides would insure that "the spice would flow."

But the so-called Arab Spring this year has been a game changer of radical proportions. It has pushed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the back burner as much of the Arab world became caught up in revolution, uprisings or just demonstrations for change.

Enter Europe, as with America, caught in a monumental economic crisis that threatens the European Monetary System. But, unlike America, Europe is far more dependent on Arab oil.

Europe's meddling in the region could end up as another excuse for the Arabs to complain to a third party rather than dealing directly with Israel. This would be counterproductive, simply preserving the status quo.... which many European leaders don't mind...just as long as there's not another war that may affect the oil flow.

After WW2 most of Europe's sympathies rested with the new state of Israel. The Nazi Holocaust was a Continental disgrace and tragedy of unequaled proportions. Besides, countries such as Poland and Germany didn't want Jewish refugees returning to homes that no longer were considered theirs.
Europeans More Pragmatic than Idealistic
But Europeans are far more pragmatic than idealistic. The horrors of that genocide are wearing thin in the face of two new realities...economics and demographics.

Not only are there 75 times more Muslims than Jews in the world, several millions of these Muslims now live in Europe. In short: There's a lot more money and political capital to be made from Muslims than Jews. Add oil to the mix and it's a no brainer for the historically anti Semitic Europeans.

Oh, and there’s also the chaos vs. order obsession. While most Americans view Israel has a hard pressed little democracy up against great odds, Europeans see Israel as the cause of the Middle East tension and disorder, something they don’t like.

A quick aside: An ultimate irony is that before and during WW2 Germany went to such great lengths of depravity and brutality to cleanse itself of non Germanic, non Christian citizens only to wind up today with far more of those people than ever.

So, allowing Europe to be the main arbiters in the region could be a recipe for disaster. In the long run the EU just doesn't have the nerve for anything except a threat to oil imports and yet all its air power wasn’t enough to crush Gaddafi.

The Palestinians UN petition is part of the Arab League’s policy of doing whatever it can do weaken Israel. And this includes having a state in two separated parts, one carved from Jordan and one from Egypt.
Jordan Lost West Bank Because of  War with PLO
And this is a story in itself. Jordan had its claim to the West Bank taken away in 1988, not by Israel, but by the Arab League, for its war against the Palestine Liberation Organization and cooperation with Israel. The League decided the land would be better served as a Palestinian entity to use against Israel.

As for Gaza, it was the only war spoils from 1967 that Egypt didn’t want returned. Can you wonder why?

So, how can a nation declare its statehood if it is divided and separated by its sworn enemy? It stands to reason there must be peace between the two sides before a viable state can be formed.

That doesn't concern the League's unofficial rep. Mahmood Abbas. He simply wants the UN to declare the state of Palestine despite it being born into a state of war. And a big part of that declaration is getting the EU on his side.

Former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk feels the issue could fracture the EU between some member states who will hang in there with the US which opposes a resolution and others who may side with the Palestinians. I disagree. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/world/middleeast/21mideast.html

The EU can't force its members to vote in a block. And diverse voting won't destroy the EU. In fact it might strengthen it in the eyes of Europeans who feel their national identities are being drowned out by a federal Europe.

For example, Germany and Italy are rejecting the Palestinian campaign, France and Spain are receptive, and Britain, as usual, is on the fence.

But a better solution might be one where the UN showed some independent creativity by linking any Palestinian statehood resolution with the PA fully recognizing and accepting Israel via a binding peace treaty. No acceptance, no state!

That won't happen...Abbas won't sign a treaty without the usual conditions...conditions designed to weaken and eventually do to Israel what the PLO did to Lebanon...create a collection of tribal cantons, which is what the Arabs could have had in 1947 just before they chose war as their best option... The reality that western leaders choose to ignore is the Arabs' longterm goal is the same today as it was in 1948...They don't want an Infidel nation in the region.