The latest move by Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement of the PLO has kiboshed any hope of peace in the Middle East. He has joined forces with Hamas whose constitutional aim is to wipe Israel of the face of the earth. In the interim, Hamas’s policy is not to recognize the Jewish State and to periodically fire endless rockets onto civilians in the Jewish homeland.
While there is enough blame to go around for all sides, the bottom line is you cannot negotiate with a partner that denies your right to exist and unashamedly wants to conquer you. So the sad irresistible conclusion of all of this is that the Palestinian leadership, after nearly seven decades of posturing, still do not want peace and a two State solution. Abbas’s action puts an end to the idea of compromising - this is an outright declaration of war and signifies that Abbas stands exactly where Arafat did.
The Israeli - Palestinian impasse thus remains after 66 years of the existence of the State of Israel.
It is a little acknowledged fact that the most ardent advocates of peace in the Middle East are in Israel.. A leading champion of the latter cause, Ari Shavit, whose recent best seller, My Promised Land, that championed the cause of the Palestinians, has written a scathing critique of the unification of Abbas’s Fatah and Hamas entitled, “Waiting for Palestinian Godot”. The pessimistic consensus in Israel is that nothing has changed and peace is an unattainable fantasy.
On the basis of the track records of Arafat and Abbas this is a realistic conclusion.
ARAFAT
Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, (PLO), lead the world a merry dance for half a century. He was regarded by the optimists as “the best hope for a settlement”. This initiator of world wide terrorism, took 40 years before he finally accepted Israel’s statehood in 1988. In 1993 the Oslo accords were signed in an atmosphere of optimism - peace at last thank G-d Almighty peace at last.
The Oslo Accords took into account UNO Resolution 242 which was ratified after the 1967 Six Day war, where the Arab nations had tried to annihilate Israel. It was generously embraced by the Israelis because it once again enshrined a two State solution. It was rejected by the PLO as it recognized Israeli statehood. (The Accords were of indirect benefit as they provided the stimulus for peace agreements between Egypt and Jordan and Israel).
No wonder everyone was ecstatic with Oslo, 46 years after the UNO establishment of Israel, Arafat, with Abbas by his side finally recognized Israel as a State and were presumably ready to negotiate the two State solution that the UNO had advocated in 1947. Arafat for his supposed largesse was rewarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
The obvious sequitor to Oslo was the Camp David summit hosted by Bill Clinton in July 2000. In attendance with the ubiquitous Arafat was Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel. Barak offered Arafat everything including the kitchen sink. Clinton placed the blame for the failure of the Camp David talks fairly and squarely at Arafat’s door. Clinton wrote in his autobiography, My Life, that he answered an Arafat compliment by responding, “I am not a great man, I am a failure, and you made me one”.
The consensus among most commentators was that Arafat would not let go of the concept of a unitary Palestinian State. He never realized that Barak would concede to all his requests in an effort to obtain that elusive peace in that region. Instead Arafat returned to Palestine and unleashed the Second Intifada in September 2000. Barak for his efforts lost his Premiership to the then militant Sharon who was elected reflecting the Israeli populace’s frustration of the peace process.
SECOND INTIFADA
Ostensibly the second intifada was ignited by Ariel Sharon who provocatively and stupidly went to visit the Holy Muslim Shrine, Temple Mount. The magnitude, the viciousness and the swiftness of the Palestinian response however belies such a simplistic explanation. Numerous Palestinian officials have acknowledged Arafat’s role in preplanning the intifada after the “failed” Camp David talks.
Arafat’s widow, as reported in The Jerusalem Post, said that she met Arafat in Paris after Camp David where he told her to stay there as he was planning an Intifada because “they wanted him to betray his principles”. The Intifada went on for 5 years. During that period Arafat appointed Abbas as Prime Minister of the PLO. The latter while professing non violence and peace and all those good things, like his mentor, did absolutely nothing to stop the intifada.
One can reasonably conclude that Arafat never had any intention to agree to a two State solution.
ABBAS
Abbas is far more sophisticated than Arafat and dresses in Western garb instead of traditional Palestinian outfits. He continues to talk the talk. He has received tens of millions in foreign aid from Western Countries in the belief that his talk is for real and like Arafat before him is the last white hope for peace in the Middle East. (Like Arafat he and his family have been accused of embezzling their “fair” share).
Mahmoud Abbas was steeped in PLO resistance and an Arafat protege till they had disputes. He negotiated the famous Beilin - Abu Mazen document in the mid - nineties that laid down the agreed principles of peace between Israel and the PLO. As a disillusioned Ari Shavit wrote in the Left Wing Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz, Beilin told Shavit that the precondition to the peace arrangement was to get rid of Netanyahu which transpired and Barak was elected. Abbas did not bring the agreement to Camp David, in fact according to Shavit he was one of the Palestinian negotiators that hung tough and demanded the right of return for Palestinians. While mouthing platitudes Abbas turned down other golden opportunities in 2003, (Geneva), 2008, (protracted talks with Olmert) and now the Kerry initiative where he right in the middle of shuttle diplomacy, amalgamated with Hamas.
Abbas ever the diplomat timed this peace killing move with a denunciation of the holocaust nearly 70 years after the rest of the world, excepting some freaks like him, had acknowledged it. Besides being patently opportunistic, this confession rings particularly hollow when one realizes his University dissertation was a holocaust denial screed.
So Abbas, like his mentor, when the chips were really down, showed his true metal as not being interested in the two State solution.
THE ISRAELI NARRATIVE - A NEW PARADIGM
The time has come for the international scene to reexamine its narrative on Israel and frame it in a different gestalt.
Now while neither protagonistis are beyond reproach and Netanyahu seems to go out of his way to feed the Palestinians with ammunition, the bottom line is you cannot negotiate with a partner that denies your right to exist and whose Constitutional aim is to seize your country by force. So the sad irresistible conclusion of all of this is that the Palestinian leadership do not want and have never wanted peace and a two State solution. Thus this is no longer a debate of tinkering around or compromising with this or that, or swopping land or closing this settlement or that, this is an outright declaration of war and signifies that Abbas stands exactly where Arafat did pre 1988.
The Israeli - Palestinian impasse thus remains after 66 years of the existence of the State of Israel.
Up till now It is fair to say Israel has been hammered and made to be the soul perpetrators of the current mess in the Middle East. They are the alleged aggressors, imperialists, occupiers and the purveyors of apartheid.
Just look at some facts as they really are:
*In 1947 UNO voted for a two state solution to the Palestinian “problem” whereupon the Arab States in defiance of UNO descended upon Israel in an attempt to create a one State solution. They lost and with no condemnation by the world, and a higgledy piggledy Israel was created instead of two coherent land masses. The Arab States and the Palestinians did not want the two State solution from the very beginning.
*As a result of the Arab initiated war a large number of Palestinians were left in what is now called Gaza and the West Bank. The Arab States, that fought the war purportedly on the Palestinian’s behalf, did nothing to relieve their plight. They just left them there as political pawns. At the end of the day they inferred that the Palestinians were Israel’s problem and the world thought that they are right!
*In 1967 and 1973 the Arab world once again attacked Israel to create a one State solution and lost.
In 1975 the General Assembly, in the teeth of this flagrant aggression, voted that Zionism was equivalent to racism. (This infamous resolution has subsequently been reversed).
In 1993 the Oslo Accords resulted in Israel returning some of the land it had won in a war that they were the victims off not the aggressors. In return Egypt, Jordan and Arafat acknowledged their existence.
From 2000 on, after Camp David, (and as is known before that), until today, the ongoing attack of Israel has persisted in the form of the angry terrorism, including suicide and other bombings of screeds of Israeli citizens by the Palestinians. The world expected Israel to grin and bear it as the Palestinians were the victims and it was Israel’s obligation to give up what UNO had decreed.
Israel defended itself and many innocent were killed on both sides. War is an ugly business and war it was although not formally declared . At least the collateral damage in the “occupied territories” was largely unintentional. Jay H Ell has criticized some of the Israeli actions as have several Israelis including their courts of law. But that still does not takeaway the fact that Israel was at war against aggressors who demanded to annul the very existence of Israel.
And now finally 2014 Abbas has gone back on Arafat’s 1988 “concession” recognizing Israel as a State. In so doing he has formally declared war again.
Israel has thus been involved in an ongoing war since its inception by those who wish to overthrow the UNO decision of 1947 of a two state solution.
War has consequences. Israel not only won wars, not of its own making, it has taken territory and the map has been reworked. The world is replete with conquered land and rewritten maps. The European map has been redrafted again and again. Should America give Texas back to the Mexicans? The Palestinians, with the world’s blessing wish to redefine this reality. The aggressors are the victims and although Israel has already ceded chunks of land back to the Arab world the Palestinians believe they have an obligation to return the lot, including Israel itself. The West Bank incidentally was captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Israel has been treated like no other nation. After World War 11 the world map was rewritten once again. Forgetting about Europe for the moment, Jordan was created in 1946 where the majority of disenfranchised Palestinians still reside. Not a word about Palestinian rights in Jordan. Instead in the postwar period with all its chaos and crimes against humanity the world’s venom has been directed at the Jewish State. Eighty- two percent of the UNO Assembly’s resolutions have been to condemn Israel and if that is not discrimination what is? Recently “well intentioned” academics sought to academically boycott Israel. Is the world going mad? (Blog: The New Anti Semitism in Europe and the Boycotts of Israeli Universities)
In case anyone has forgotten Hamas is the surrogate of Iran. Iran who are on the cusp of creating a nuclear capability and are on record to eliminate Israel. (Blog: Netanyahu, Double Standards and the Middle East Negotiations).
There has to be a de javu of the twenties to the eighties where the freedom fighters of the world blindly admired and worshipped the example of the USSR and the leadership of Joseph Stalin. During this period the world stood by as the holocaust unfolded and even shut its doors to those fleeing Germany.
If there is a second holocaust is this crowd going to say the Israelis had it coming to them or that nobody knew? If there isn’t one it will be because the Israeli’s have resolved “never again”. So for the moment Israel should forget about negotiations with the Palestinians and work on the Arab States who are against Iran, as suggested by Avrit, as these States will inevitably have to be against Iran’s surrogates Hamas and Hezbollah. If Israel have to rely on the rest of the world, other than a few shining examples, and the UNO, who have already granted Palestine nation status, they will be sadly disappointed.
In the words of Amos Oz, Israel’s most famous author and peacenik:
“First they told us to get out of Europe and now they are telling us to go back”.
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