Israeli Defeatism In The Flesh

On June 24, Yossi Alpher, Colette Avital, Shlomo Gazit, and Mark Heller, published an opinion article in the pages of the New York Times entitled "Buying Into Palestinian Statehood." The instant I saw the title I said to myself that in fact the correct title for this outrageous and uncomprehending opinion article is "Buying Into Israeli Suicide." The uncomprehending and counter intuitive character of the thinking that went into this article are evident from the first paragraph. Here is the article's first sentence:

Instead of wasting time and energy trying to revive a moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the United States and European Union should take another look at the Palestinian initiative to seek U.N. recognition in September.

Why is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process moribund? Not on account of anything Israel has done or didn't do for the last two years. It is moribund because Abu Mazen, the president of the Palestinian Authority killed it in 2009.

Toward the end of 2009 the Palestinian Authority announced:

"A plan to seek unilateral statehood through a UN Security Council vote. Palestinian leaders say the US and Israel leave them with no other option".

The government of Israel rejected this Palestinian gambit.

"Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a new Palestinian plan to seek unilateral statehood through a UN Security Council vote."

It seems no one ever asked the Palestinians what they meant by "Israel and the US leaving them with no other option..."  But this is obviously just a meaningless pretext, typical of Palestinian diplomatic deceit.

Closing the door on bilateral negotiations and launching an aggressive worldwide diplomatic initiative for Palestinian unilateral statehood recognition in the UN was Abu Mazen's strategic choice two years ago, and the Palestinian effort is poised to bear fruit in September.

But while Alpher, Avital, Gazit and Heller are sanguine about this dramatic Palestinian move, and even see great merit in it, the fact is the Palestinian UN statehood scheme is the most hostile thing the Palestinians can do. It isn't just an absolute betrayal of the Oslo Agreement's provisions for bilateral relations between the Palestinians and Israel. The Palestinian declaration of statehood in the UN is essentially a declaration of war against Israel. It flies in the face of logic and rationality that any Israeli could see the Palestinian unilateral move for statehood in the UN as anything else whatsoever. Yoni Meltzer:

"If the "civilized world" helps bring the Palestinian plan to fruition then a very likely result of such actions will be the outbreak of war. Thus, in a world turned upside down it will be the UN, a body formed to help foster peace throughout the world, which will be directly responsible for bringing the next great Arab-Israeli war to the Middle East."

Abu Mazen deliberately and maliciously closed the door on bilateral negotiations because he decided that the best bet for the Palestinians was statehood recognition in the UN. Regardless of what Israel thinks or what Israel needs in order to resolve the Palestinian Israeli conflict. But this hubris and this betrayal will only backfire on the arrogant and uncomprehending Palestinians.

The day after the Palestinians unilaterally declare statehood in the UN it will be Israel that acts.

Foreign Minister Lieberman recently stated that Israel will void the Oslo Accords, for example. This will have the effect of gelding the brazen Palestinian Authority cold. The tactic of withholding PA tax funds has also come up.

This would have a devastating effect on its ability to function on any plane.

A proposal has also been raised in the Knesset to annex the lands in Judea and Samaria on which Jewish settlements are located. This would effectively eviscerate the Palestinian state.

The authors of Buying Into Palestinian Statehood would be well advised to climb on the bandwagon of logic, rationality and truth (not to mention Israeli patriotism) and tell PA President Mahmoud Abbas to abort the whole malicious UN statehood initiative immediately. Bilateral negotiations are the only path to a permanent settlement.