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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; palestinian state</title>
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		<title>A UN Timetable for Israel’s Destruction</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:53:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[europeans]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247556</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And Obama's betrayal. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4hxon.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247524" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4hxon-410x350.jpg" alt="rtr4hxon" width="302" height="258" /></a>The Obama administration is shamelessly outsourcing the United States&#8217; historic leadership in facilitating negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel of a workable, secure two-state solution to the United Nations and European governments. In putting its trust in these two centers of anti-Israel sentiment, the Obama administration refuses to say categorically that it would veto a UN Security Council resolution setting some sort of deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 lines.</p>
<p>In the words of an unnamed senior U.S. State Department official quoted by Reuters, &#8220;These things are all very much in flux, it&#8217;s not as if we&#8217;re being asked to take a position on any particular Security Council resolution right now. It would be premature for us to discuss documents that are of uncertain status right now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Any Security Council resolution the Obama administration would agree to, which imposes pressure only on Israel to make more unilateral concessions for an illusionary “peace,” will serve to legitimize a United Nations timetable for Israel’s surrender to forces that wish to destroy it. The Gaza debacle following Israel’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in 2005 and give the Palestinians a chance to build a prototype Palestinian state illustrates the danger Israel would face from being pressured into more withdrawals at this time.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority leadership is pressing for action on just such a Security Council resolution as early as this Wednesday, according to a Palestine Liberation Organization official and Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour. The Palestinian resolution, to be sponsored by Jordan (a non-permanent member of the Security Council), would reportedly set a two year deadline for complete Israeli withdrawal from all “occupied” territories, although Jordan’s UN ambassador told reporters it was news to her that any action to vote on the resolution would be taken as soon as the Palestinians are demanding. There is some speculation amongst UN insiders that a vote on a Palestinian resolution could be put off until early in the new year. The Security Council makeup will then be even more inclined towards the Palestinian position, because Malaysia will be replacing South Korea as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.</p>
<p>The Palestinians are finding a very receptive audience in Europe for their use of the United Nations to sidestep direct negotiations with Israel. As the tide of anti-Semitism is rising to the surface and spreading once again throughout Europe, a number of European countries&#8217; parliaments have adopted non-binding resolutions calling upon their respective governments to recognize a Palestinian state. Sweden went further with official recognition of a state of Palestine. France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is taking the lead in crafting a European version of a Palestinian state resolution. The idea reportedly would be to set out an expectation for a final peace agreement to achieve a two-state solution within two years. During the two year interval, the United Nations might accord full UN membership rights to an officially recognized Palestinian state. The text is still a subject of consultations in European capitals, according to the United Kingdom&#8217;s UN Ambassador Lyall Grant.</p>
<p>The Obama administration, which would like nothing better than to see its nemesis Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated in the upcoming March 2015 Israeli elections, is calibrating a position that appears intended to send a pointed message to the Israeli electorate. This message is not to count on the administration standing steadfastly with Israel on sensitive security concerns if Prime Minister Netanyahu is re-elected. The Obama administration is willing to consider a &#8220;compromise&#8221; Security Council resolution to pressure Israel into resuming negotiations against a backdrop of a framework withdrawal timetable, so that the administration can say it did all it can to avoid an immediate two year deadline and thereby not have to use its veto power to “protect” Israel.</p>
<p>Thus, Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting early this week with European foreign ministers, Arab League officials, and Israeli and Palestinian officials to &#8220;hear from and engage with other stakeholders&#8230;and to the best of our ability work toward a common path forward,&#8221; according to a senior State Department official.</p>
<p>Israeli civilians under relentless attack by Palestinian jihadists are the main &#8220;stakeholders&#8221; whom the United States should be worried about. If there is to be a &#8220;common path forward&#8221; to peace, it requires Palestinian negotiating partners who are willing to publicly give up their claim to a right of return of millions of so-called Palestinian refugees to pre-June 1967 Israeli cities and towns, and who recognize Israel&#8217;s right to self-determination as a Jewish state that can co-exist securely side by side with a peaceful Palestinian state. There has been no such partner to engage in genuine negotiations for more than six decades. There remains no such partner today, nor is there likely to be one in the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Hamas has made clear its intention time again, by word and deed, to destroy the state of Israel and kill as many Jews as possible. Following, for example, are excerpts from an interview with Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 11, 2011 (courtesy of MEMRI):</p>
<blockquote><p>The [Jews] are brought in droves to Palestine so that the Palestinians – and the Islamic nation behind them – will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang…All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews…When Palestine is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam, the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hamas’s barrage of rocket attacks launched from Gaza against Israeli civilians since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 attests to its deadly intentions. Just last Sunday, Hamas marked its 27<sup>th</sup> anniversary by parading 2,000 of its armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets. A senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said: &#8216;This illusion called Israel will be removed.”</p>
<p>Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has thrown in his lot with Hamas in forming a so-called “unity reconciliation” government and has himself incited sectarian violence in and around Jerusalem with incendiary rhetoric.  But even Abbas has expressed frustration with what he called Hamas’s continued “shadow government&#8230; running the territory&#8221; in Gaza on its own.</p>
<p>In the real world, which is alien to the United Nations, the Arab world, European governments and the Obama administration, simply saying something is so doesn&#8217;t make it so. Diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state does not change the reality on the ground. Nor does a pie-in-the-sky declaration of a “unity” or “reconciliation” Palestinian government that exists only on paper. For example, in delivering his regular briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, admitted to Security Council members on December 15<sup>th</sup> the lack of a functioning Palestinian reconciliation unity government to replace Hamas’s governance in Gaza. He said that delivery of thousands of tons of construction materials into Gaza is being permitted by Israel under the temporary Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism agreed upon by Israel, the so-called Palestinian Government of National Consensus and the UN, even though the “Government of National Consensus in Gaza has still not taken up its rightful governance and security function” that is a critical part of the arrangement.</p>
<p>The Palestinians’ own internal power struggle between Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, which currently dominates the West Bank, means that there is no real unified state government apparatus. Hamas won’t give up its military control in Gaza and is seeking to expand its influence in the West Bank at the Palestinian Authority’s expense. There can be no real foundation for a workable Palestinian state under international law when there is no single governing authority in a position to effectively exert sovereign control over all of a putative Palestinian state’s territory and people. Nor can there be a real state under international law that does not have the capacity to ensure compliance with any bilateral or international agreements such a state may enter into in the future.</p>
<p>No matter what kind of “common path” Secretary of State Kerry thinks he can achieve with the Palestinians and their Arab and European supporters on a Security Council timetable resolution, Israel must reject the path of forced withdrawal that could lead to its own destruction. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said during the regular Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday, a UN Security Council-imposed deadline for Israeli withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 lines would bring &#8220;Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem. We will not allow this. We will rebuff this forcefully and responsibly. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Will the UN Security Council Impose a Palestinian State?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/will-the-un-security-council-impose-a-palestinian-state/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-the-un-security-council-impose-a-palestinian-state</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 05:25:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security council]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[veto]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244235</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Only a potential U.S. veto stands in the way.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Fnazis.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244238" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Fnazis.jpg" alt="Fnazis" width="297" height="198" /></a>January, 2015 does not bode well for Israel at the United Nations (UN). The UN Security Council (UNSC) will officially induct five newly elected non-permanent member-states replacing outgoing Rwanda, S. Korea, Australia, Argentina and Luxembourg, representing all the global regions. Unfortunately for Israel, the incoming states, particularly Venezuela and Malaysia, are hostile to the Jewish state. The other three, Angola, New Zealand, and Spain are pondering their position on recognizing Palestine as a full member-state of the UN.</p>
<p>It is apparent that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will seize the opportunity and try to win an almost guaranteed majority on the UNSC, to grant Palestine full UN membership. In Abbas’ calculations, receiving UNSC recognition will enable him to demand that the UNSC set a deadline for Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 line. At the same time, he’ll avoid having to negotiate peace with Israel, or make any concessions to the Jewish state.</p>
<p>The Palestinians need nine votes at the UNSC to win acceptance. They previously received seven. This time it appears that they may achieve their goal. Among the five permanent members, China and Russia are likely to support recognition of a Palestinian State. Britain and France are yet undecided, and the U.S will likely object.</p>
<p>Among the ten non-permanent states on the UNSC, Chad will support a Palestinian state, Chile is leaning towards acceptance, Lithuania is likely to object, and Nigeria is still undecided. Malaysia and Venezuela will definitely support the Palestinian quest. If we are to anticipate the votes of the undecided members based on their November 29, 2012 <a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2012/ga11317.doc.htm">votes</a> at the General Assembly, to accord Palestine “non-member Observer State status,” it is more than likely that Angola, Nigeria, and Spain will also vote for acceptance. This would give the Palestinians 10 votes and full membership in the UN.</p>
<p>The only thing that can prevent the acceptance of Palestine as a member-state of the UN is a U.S. veto. In lieu of the tense relationship between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, Israel can no longer count on a US veto as a given. According to <em>YnetNews.com </em>(October 19, 2014) “Diplomatic officials said Israel is taking into bracing for a bad scenario in which the Democrats <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4581556,00.html">lose</a> their Senate majority in the midterm elections, and will then be free of obligations, which might lead them to get back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for all the public clashes with the Democratic administration at the White House.”</p>
<p>PM Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament (Knesset) on Monday (October 27, 2014): “I don’t see pressure on the Palestinians. I see only pressure on Israel to make more and more concessions…The Palestinians are demanding of us to establish a Palestinian state – without peace and without security. They demand withdrawal to the 1967 lines, admitting refugees and dividing Jerusalem – and after all these exaggerated demands they are not prepared to agree to the <a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Newsheadlineslist.aspx">basic condition</a> for peace between two peoples – mutual recognition!”</p>
<p>The U.S. has been reluctant to use its veto power at the UNSC, especially the Obama administration. Yet, the Obama administration in February, 2011 cast its first-ever veto at the UNSC, blocking a Palestinian-backed draft resolution that denounced <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/israel.html?nav=el">Israel&#8217;s</a> settlement policy as an illegal obstacle to peace efforts in the Middle East. In the case of a vote on Palestinian statehood, the U.S. is likely to pressure other UNSC member-states not to support the Palestinian move by offering alternatives such as the revival of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel. But, the fact that President Obama this time is not seeking reelection, and is unlikely to be deterred by Republican criticism, America’s veto must be considered uncertain at best.</p>
<p>The Europeans are seeking to position themselves somewhere between the U.S. and the Palestinian position. While they may abstain in the vote on Palestinian statehood, they will demand a set of parameters for a permanent agreement that will eventually lead to a Palestinian state. These parameters might include Israel’s withdrawal to the June, 1967 line with land swaps and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.</p>
<p>According to the <em>European Jewish Congress</em> press, “France will <a href="http://www.eurojewcong.org/News%20and%20Views/7091-france-to-abstain-at-un-security-council-vote-on-palestinian-un-bid-britain-will-have-the-same-position.html">abstain</a> at the UNSC vote on Palestinian UN bid, and Britain will do the same.” The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “While the region is experiencing upheaval, the legitimacy of the Palestinian aspiration for statehood is indisputable. However, the Palestinian request has no chance of success in the UNSC due, in particular, to the opposition expressed by the U.S.” In other words, the Europeans wish to exculpate themselves in appeasing the Arab-Muslim world and their own Muslim constituents, while putting the onus on the U.S.</p>
<p>The Europeans, the State Department, and New York Times to name a few, are unwilling to fully consider the consequences of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, under unrelenting pressure from the above institutions, brought it numerous wars and unending terror. Israel removed 9,000 Jewish residents by force, destroyed their homes, but left their green-houses to the Palestinians. Hamas terrorists in Gaza have used the areas vacated by the Jewish residents as a base to lob over 10,000 rockets on communities throughout Israel.</p>
<p>A Palestinian state in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza is unlikely to be demilitarized, and Hamas can be counted on to take over within a short time. Iran would immediately rush in heavy arms, and as a sovereign state, these arms shipments would arrive unhindered by air or sea. This would mean that even short range rockets from east of Jerusalem will target and hit Israel’s main population centers, including its international Ben Gurion airport. Israel would be paralyzed, and its economy and security in shambles. Any Israeli government will be compelled to react with force, and that would bring about international condemnation by the UN, and possibly sanctions. In addition, one can anticipate a regional war that might involve Iran’s nuclear weapons, and tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel.</p>
<p>At a press conference on July 11, 2014, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/benjamin-netanyahu-palest_n_5598997.html">relinquish security</a> control of the territory west of the Jordan River.”</p>
<p>British PM David Cameron opined that, “We support Palestine having its own state next to a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8781566/David-Cameron-Britain-wants-to-see-a-Palestinian-state.html">secure Israel</a>…In the end we have to recognize we will get a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state by the Palestinians and the Israelis sitting down and talking to each other.”</p>
<p>US Department of State Spokeswoman Jen Psaki stated at a press briefing Friday (October 3, 2014), “We believe <a href="http://en.ria.ru/politics/20141004/193633372/Palestine-Not-Ready-for-Statehood-US-Department-of-State.html">international recognition</a> of a Palestinian state is premature. We certainly support Palestinian statehood but it can only come through a negotiated outcome, a resolution of final status issues and mutual recognition by both parties. I don’t think that we’ve seen evidence that they’re willing and able to either at this point in time.”</p>
<p>Mahmoud Abbas has been greatly encouraged by the Swedish and British parliaments votes to recognize a Palestinian state. Moreover, the new makeup of the UN Security Council as of January, 2015 will give him a tailwind to push for statehood. Only a U.S. veto at the UNSC can stop this madness, and compel Abbas to negotiate with Israel in earnest. Perhaps, in the interim, the Palestinians can evolve into a civil society with the rule of law, discard terror and incitement against Israel, and build a viable economy.</p>
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		<title>U.S. Double Standard Towards The Kurds</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:15:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=165808</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Palestinian statehood: thumbs up; Kurdish independent state: thumbs down.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/u-s-double-standard-towards-the-kurds/kurds/" rel="attachment wp-att-165823"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-165823" title="kurds" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kurds.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="203" /></a>The London based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on October 29, 2012 that the Obama administration has rejected the notion of an independent Kurdish state. An article by Shirzad Shikhani in the paper headlined: “Kurdish Autonomous Region No-Go – US notes that &#8216;A Kurdish leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed that the US administration has informed Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani that the US and Turkey will not support any efforts, on his part, to announce an independent Kurdish state&#8217;.”  This raises the curious question as to why the Obama administration supports Palestinian statehood but finds a Kurdish independent state objectionable.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s reasoning according to Shikhani is that Washington supports “dialogue with Baghdad, and recommended that he (Barzani) &#8211; along with Iraqi political leaders – seek to overcome this crisis and normalize relations between the Iraqi and Kurdish political forces in order to protect the democratic experience in Iraq.” Iraq however is not a Jeffersonian democracy nor could it ever be one, given that Iraq is an inorganic concoction created by the colonial powers post WWI.  Iraq ceased to be a “democracy” of any kind as soon as the U.S. troops departed in 2011. Its Prime Minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, has increasingly assumed the authoritarian nature of other Arab leaders, to the deep dismay of true democrats.</p>
<p>The New York Times in a September 5, 2012 report on Nuri Al-Maliki noted that, “In 2011, as American involvement in his country came to an end, he was viewed as the country’s emerging sectarian strongman, <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/middleeast/arrests-in-iraq-raise-concerns-about-maliki.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/middleeast/arrests-in-iraq-raise-concerns-about-maliki.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print" target="_blank">whose aggressive actions have raised concerns both at home and in the West, </a>where officials have long been uneasy with the prime minister’s <a title="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/nuri_kamal_al-maliki/index.html" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/nuri_kamal_al-maliki/index.html" target="_blank">authoritarian</a> tendencies.”</p>
<p>Modern Iraq has always been ruled by authoritarian leaders.  Its first ruler was the Hashemite King Feisal originally from the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia -a Sunni Muslim ruling over a majority of Arab Shiites-Muslims and Kurds.  Then, in 1958, Col. Abd al-Karim Qasim seized power in coup that deposed the monarchy and murdered the royal family.  The pro-Communist Qasim was deposed and killed in a Ba’athist engineered coup in 1963, that brought Qasim’s coup partner, Col. Abdul Salam Arif (Arab Sunni-Muslim) to power. When he died in a plane crash (most likely sabotage) his brother Abdul Rahman Arif became president in 1966.  Another coup in 1968 brought Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr<strong> </strong>to power. Al-Bakr stepped down (most likely forced to do so) from the presidency in 1979, and Saddam Hussein, al-Bakr’s cousin assumed full dictatorial power in Iraq.  All of these strongmen including Saddam were Arab Sunni-Muslim. Al-Maliki is the first Arab-Shiite to rule Iraq.</p>
<p>The post WW I Treaty of <a title="http://www.fransamaltingvongeusau.com/documents/dl1/h1/1.1.18.pdf" href="http://www.fransamaltingvongeusau.com/documents/dl1/h1/1.1.18.pdf" target="_blank">Se’vres</a><strong>,</strong> (Aug. 10, 1920), between the victorious Allies and the defeated Ottoman Turkey, provided for an autonomous Kurdistan (and an independent Armenia).  The treaty was rejected however by the new Turkish nationalist regime of Kemal Ataturk, and was replaced by the <a title="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/332502/Treaty-of-Lausanne" href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/332502/Treaty-of-Lausanne" target="_blank">Treaty of Lausanne</a> in 1923. The Kurds then declared independence in 1927 and established the Republic of Ararat, only to be crushed by the Turks three years later.  Turkey now as then is opposed to any manifestation of Kurdish independence in Iraq or Syria, but champion’s Palestinian independence.  This hypocrisy is regrettably endorsed by the U.S.</p>
<p>Britain, post WW I, received a League of Nations Mandate for the administration of Iraq and Palestine, and to consolidate oil resources, stripped the Kurdish area of northern Iraq from Turkey and combined it with the Iraqi oil rich Gulf region in the south.  The Sunni tribal areas lay between these two areas.  But while London sought to confer self-determination on Arab-Palestinians under the 1937 Peel Commission (which the Arab rejected) they have never provided the same opportunity for the Kurds.  Mullah Mustafa Barzani (Massoud Barzani father) became the Kurdish figurehead who sought separatism, autonomy and ultimately independence for the Kurds. In 1946, along Qazi Muhammad, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, declared the Independent Republic of Mahabad in northwestern Iran.  It lasted a mere six months and was crushed by overwhelming number of Iranian troops.</p>
<p>Barzani returned to his native Iraq in 1958 following the overthrow of the monarchy.  Barzani’s call for Kurdish autonomy brought him into conflict with Qasim and the Arif brothers. A peace deal between the Baghdad government led by Saddam Hussein and the Kurdish Peshmerga under Barzani was signed in 1970.  It recognized Kurdish self-rule in Northern Iraq, and the Kurdish language.  But as the Al-Bakr-Saddam Hussein regime “Arabized,” hostilities in the oil-rich Kirkuk area (a majority Kurdish area) resumed.</p>
<p>The Iran-Iraq War that began in 1980 afforded the Kurds in Iraq an opportunity to push back the Iraqi forces in Northern Iraq. In 1983, Saddam ordered his troops into the area around Massoud Barzani’s home (now leader of the KDP following his father’s death in 1979) and mercilessly killed 8000 Kurds. As the war with Iran was waning, Saddam initiated the “Anfal Campaign” against the Kurds in northern Iraq.  Saddam’s cousin-Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” used poison gas to kill <a title="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-176257/Bloody-history-Iraqs-Kurds.html" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-176257/Bloody-history-Iraqs-Kurds.html" target="_blank">5000</a> civilians and injure 10,000 in the town of Halabja.</p>
<p>In 1991, soon after the Gulf War, President George H. Bush encouraged the Kurds to launch an uprising against Saddam but when Iraqi planes bombed Kurdish villages the U.S. did nothing.  As a result, a million Iraqi Kurds became refugees. These events prompted the Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani, to end their civil war and unite.</p>
<p>Considering that Americans are welcomed and safe in Iraqi Kurdistan, and that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) led by Massoud Barzani is the only stable entity in Iraq, where prosperity and democracy are emerging, the question that begs asking is why the Obama administration is not eager to welcome an independent Kurdistan.  Joe Biden as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was quoted by Reuters on May 1, 2006 as saying: “Iraq should be divided into three largely <a title="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12897.htm" href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12897.htm" target="_blank">autonomous</a> regions &#8211; Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab &#8211; with a weaker central government in Baghdad.” Biden, in a NY Times Op-Ed warned against actions by the (George W.) Bush administration, saying: “the Bush administration&#8217;s effort to establish a strong central government in Baghdad had been a <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html?pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">failure</a> doomed by ethnic rivalry that had spawned widespread sectarian violence.”  As Vice President and part of the Biden/Obama administration, Biden is complicit in doing exactly what he railed against.</p>
<p>The hypocrisy and double standards of the Obama administration regarding Kurdish independence can be best understood when one reads Obama’s Cairo speech of June 2009 in which he said, “For more than sixty years they (the Palestinians) have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.”</p>
<p>The Kurds have endured great suffering, indignity, and humiliation over the last 100 years.  The suffering of the Arab Palestinians referenced by Obama has been largely self-inflicted.  Time and again they have rejected offers of peace and compromises.  The 1937 Peel Commission and the 1947 UN Partition Plan offered the Arab Palestinians an opportunity to establish their own state alongside a tiny Jewish State. They chose war and the possibility of destroying Israel instead.  The Kurds unlike the Arab-Palestinians have not engaged in terror, suicide bombing, and aircraft hijacking, and acts of terror by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been condemned by most Kurds.  And while there are 22 Arab states who share the same sense of collective nationhood including religion, culture, and language, there is not a single Kurdish state in spite of the fact that the Kurdish nation is 40 million strong, with its own culture and Indo-European language (Kurmanji and Sorani).</p>
<p>It is time the U.S. and the West support an independent Kurdish state comprised of the contiguous areas of Kurdish dominance in northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.  Such support would be an act of true justice and fairness for a forgotten nation - the Kurds.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Palestinian Blogger Agrees with Romney, says Palestinian State is Unworkable</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/palestinian-blogger-agrees-with-romney-says-palestinian-state-is-unworkable/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=palestinian-blogger-agrees-with-romney-says-palestinian-state-is-unworkable</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/palestinian-blogger-agrees-with-romney-says-palestinian-state-is-unworkable/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:24:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=146220</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["The whole idea of establishing a Palestinian state here is not realistic at all. It cannot sustain itself, and many of the Palestinian residents would like to leave the area. Their lives are terrible." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/134882296416064453a_b.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-146225" title="134882296416064453a_b" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/134882296416064453a_b-300x204.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="204" /></a></p>
<p>&#8230;<a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5925">which really is the point</a>. Very few of the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank think that the current process works or expect it to work. The only people truly invested in a Palestinian Muslim state are international diplomatic elites and a layer of anti-Israel yuppies and terrorist leaders in Gaza and the West Bank.</p>
<p>But this is another face of the One State Solution, just not the kind that most expect to see, complete with calls for the annexation of the territories. That&#8217;s a position that Israel has avoided taking due to pressure from the international community and due to plain demographics.</p>
<p>The official international solution has been to take the most violent terrorist groups, treat them as a government and throw billions of dollars at them. Surprisingly this has not worked out well.</p>
<p>Mudar Zahran represents one side of a growing consensus that a Palestinian state is a dead end and that the way to proceed is to merge those territories into Israel giving the &#8220;Palestinians&#8221; the option of becoming Israeli citizens or offering them compensation in exchange for moving to a majority Muslim country if they can&#8217;t be comfortable in Israel.</p>
<blockquote><p>I was interviewed on Al-Jazeera and said that I’d like the Arab countries to treat my people the way Israel does.”</p>
<p>“The current situation is a mistake that must be corrected, and Israel must annex all of Judea and Samaria. The Palestinian Authority has no good health-care system or policing system in all of Judea and Samaria. The whole idea of establishing a Palestinian state here is not realistic at all. It cannot sustain itself, and many of the Palestinian residents would like to leave the area. Their lives are terrible. There’s a lot of corruption here.”</p>
<p>Zahran says that the Palestinians will live well only under Israeli rule. Once again he says that it is time to stop harassing Israel about the settlements. “As long as it doesn’t build in another country or in territory that belongs to other people, Israel has every right to keep on building here, and it shouldn’t be anyone’s business,” he says, referring not only to Palestinians or Israeli pro-Palestinian organizations, but also to foreign countries.</p>
<p>Of course, he does not understand the Israelis who oppose the settlements, because in his words, “They’re just encouraging the terrorist groups indirectly. They’re giving legitimacy to Hamas.</p></blockquote>
<p>There&#8217;s a good deal more in the interview and there have been quiet meetings between settler leaders and Muslims discussing terms of integration into Israel overseen by conservative European politicians. Such a process will have its bumps in the road, but it&#8217;s far more workable than decades of terror in pursuit of a mirage of a state.</p>
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		<title>If Jordan Falls</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/if-jordan-falls/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=if-jordan-falls</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/if-jordan-falls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jordan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=128859</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The key to peaceful relations in the Middle East?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/jordan.jpeg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-128898" title="jordan" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/jordan.jpeg" alt="" width="384" height="256" /></a>The “Arab Spring” revolutions seem to have bypassed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – at least for the time being. But for King Abdullah II of Jordan the long-term survival of his throne and that of the Hashemite monarchy is becoming more questionable.  Jordan, a British creation, has never been an organic state but rather, is a concoction of Bedouin tribes and Palestinians, who by some estimates, comprise <a title="http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles3/fs4.htm" href="http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles3/fs4.htm" target="_blank">70%</a> of the population.  It is therefore logical to assume that it may be just a matter of time before Jordan becomes a Palestinian State.</p>
<p>At this juncture in world history, it is imperative that the U.S. and its Western allies begin to examine the possibility of a Palestinian State with its capital being Amman. “Jordan is Palestine,” is not merely a slogan but rather the only realistic solution to the Arab (Palestinian)-Israeli conflict.  Unlike the West Bank and Gaza, which are simply too small to contain a Palestinian population reputed to be nearly<a title="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" href="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" target="_blank"> 4.3</a> million. Jordan’s <a title="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" href="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" target="_blank">89,342</a> square kilometers, more than four times the size of Israel’s <a title="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" href="http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-facebook/geos/g2.html" target="_blank">20,770</a> square kilometers, would afford the Palestinians more than sufficient space and, some natural resources.</p>
<p>The Jordan River is and should be the natural border between the Palestinians and Israel – one that would provide security for Israel and allow the Palestinians to militarize.  A militarized Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza, which is inevitable, would constitute a serious threat to Israel. Moreover, a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza would naturally attract irredentist elements amongst the Arabs in Israel’s Galilee that would further complicate the prospects of peace and security for Israel.</p>
<p>The two-state solution in the territory west of the Jordan River is a prescription for perpetual conflict between Arab-Palestinians and Jews.  The close proximity of the Samaritan hills &#8211; which the Palestinians will claim &#8211; to Israel’s population centers and the Ben-Gurion International Airport, poses an existential threat to the Jewish State. Rather than have two people fighting over one small parcel of land, Arab-Palestinians and Jews would be able to share the historic land mass of Palestine the way it was before the British cut off its eastern portion in 1922 &#8211; east of the Jordan River &#8211; to establish the Emirate of Trans-Jordan, later to be known as the Hashemite Kingdom.  Poetic justice and fairness would place Eastern Palestine, now called Jordan, in Palestinian hands, and Israel would retain Western Palestine.  Arab residents of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza will be part of the Palestinian State, and the Jordan River will separate the two states.</p>
<p>Dr. Larbi Sadiki, a senior lecturer on Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter wrote in Al-Jazeera (February 25, 2012) “What is most striking about Jordan’s durable pro-reform <a title="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/2012217141945258425.html" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/2012217141945258425.html" target="_blank">rioting</a>, however, is its polyphony.  Amid such noise, disunited tribes, Islamists, students, retired army officers, and former establishment figures are united in their cry for greater freedom and reform of the decaying monarchy.  Jordan’s ‘Arab Spring’ remains a long way away, but the protest current that has taken root refuses to fade away until the king and queen do more than sell hope, image, and rhetoric.”</p>
<p>The defining element of dissent in Jordan is the growing dissatisfaction by the Bedouin tribes &#8212; long the bedrock of support of the royal regime, who are now in support of reform.  The decentralized nature of the anti-government protest makes dissatisfaction difficult to contain; the esteem of the royal couple once considered as sacrosanct as that of the late King Hussein’s, is diminishing.  There are republican sentiments expressed openly, and former establishment figures have taken an anti-establishment posture, demanding liberalization and an end to corruption.</p>
<p>The restive Palestinians in Jordan, cognizant of the Arab Spring and its impact in Egypt, Tunisia, and possibly Syria, where dictatorial and corrupt rulers have been overthrown by the people, are seeking a more open and fair society, and a democracy.  The Palestinians, more so than the Bedouin tribesmen, are alienated from King Abdullah, whose mother was British.  They have little loyalty towards the monarchy, especially for their Westernized king.</p>
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		<title>The New York Times’ Charlie Brown</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-thornton/the-new-york-times%e2%80%99-charlie-brown/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-new-york-times%25e2%2580%2599-charlie-brown</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-thornton/the-new-york-times%e2%80%99-charlie-brown/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Apr 2012 04:50:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Thornton]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friedman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=127876</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tom Friedman's continued delusions about a Palestinian state. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/friedman.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-127991" title="friedman" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/friedman.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="600" /></a></p>
<p>For decades now too many Western politicians, diplomats, and pundits have played Charlie Brown to the Palestinians’ Lucy. No matter how many times the Arabs have invited Westerners to kick the football of “land for peace,” only to jerk the ball away at the last minute, there remains no end of Westerners eager to line up and take another try no matter how many times they land flat on their backs.</p>
<p>Thomas Friedman might hold the record for falling for this trick. Just recently he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/opinion/a-middle-east-twofer.html?hp">endorsed</a> a call by jailed terrorist murderer Marwan Barghouti for a “non-violent” uprising against Israel “with civil disobedience or boycotts of Israel, Israeli settlements or Israeli products.” Friedman does have one condition for his support: that the Palestinians present “a detailed map of the final two-state settlement they are seeking.” In the same column, Friedman also endorsed the view that creating a Palestinian state can create peace and stability by providing an alternative “model” to the Islamist states coming into being as a result of the “Arab Spring” uprisings: “the rise of Islamists in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria, Israelis and Palestinians” create “a greater incentive than ever to create an alternative model in the West Bank — a Singapore — to show that they [Israelis and Arabs], together, can give birth to a Palestinian state where Arab Muslims and Christians, men and women, can thrive in a secular, but religiously respectful, free-market, democratic context, next to a Jewish state.”</p>
<p>No better example of the persistent hold of received wisdom and unexamined assumptions can be found than Friedman’s column. The biggest assumption, of course, is that a critical mass of ordinary Palestinian Arabs––as opposed to the duplicitous or Westernized elites Friedman talks to––want a state more than they want to destroy Israel. If we attend to deeds rather than deceitful words, the evidence that the destruction of Israel trumps acquiring a state is overwhelming. For starters, Palestinians have squandered every opportunity to create their own state, beginning with the U.N.’s 1947 partition plan. As Efraim Karsh writes of the rise of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, “Had Arafat set the PLO from the start on the path to peace and reconciliation, instead of turning it into one of the most murderous terrorist organizations in modern times, a Palestinian state could have been established in the late 1960s or the early 1970s; in 1979 as a corollary to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty; by May 1999 as part of the Oslo Process; or at the very latest with the Camp David summit of July 2000.”</p>
<p>And why have the Palestinians consistently rejected these opportunities for a state? One simple reason: an absolute rejection of the legitimacy of Israel and its right to exist. This rejection of Israel is obvious in the non-negotiable demand of a “right of return” for the ever-growing number of “refugees,” a demand that if granted would create a demographic WMD that would destroy Israel as a Jewish state. Nor is this rejection of Israel a consequence of Arafat’s failures as a leader, as compared to the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas: “For all their drastically different personalities and political styles,” Karsh writes, “Arafat and Abbas are warp and woof of the same fabric: dogmatic PLO veterans who have never eschewed their commitment to Israel’s destruction and who have viewed the ‘peace process’ as the continuation by other means of their lifelong war.”</p>
<p>Thus in the 2007 Annapolis Conference, when Israeli president Ehud Olmert offered a Palestinian state on 97% of the West Bank on the condition of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas turned him down, demanding again the “right of return,” the euphemism for the slow-motion demographic destruction of Israel. So too in 2009, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded recognition of Israel as a condition for negotiations, Abbas responded, “A Jewish state, what does that suppose to mean? You can call yourselves as you like, but I don’t accept it and I say so publicly.” Netanyahu’s repeat offer a few months later was scorned throughout the Arab world. American “ally” Hosni Mubarak said that “no one will support this appeal in Egypt or elsewhere.” Chief Palestinian “peace negotiator” Saeb Erekat said that Netanyahu “will have to wait 1,000 years before he finds one Palestinian who will go along with him.” In August of that year, as Karsh concludes this history of rejection, Fatah’s general congress “reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to the ‘armed struggle’ as ‘a strategy, not tactic . . . in the battle for liberation and for the elimination of the Zionist presence. This struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is eliminated and Palestine is liberated.’” Given this six-decade-long irredentist history, what sort of “detailed map of the final two-state settlement” does Friedman think the Palestinians will offer to earn his endorsement of their protests?</p>
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		<title>Eric Cantor Gets the Mideast Conflict</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/yedidya-atlas/eric-cantor-gets-the-mideast-conflict/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=eric-cantor-gets-the-mideast-conflict</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:02:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Yedidya Atlas]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eric Cantor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yasser Arafat]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=117682</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The congressman takes heat for insisting that Palestinians show that they're "worthy of a state." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/110318_eric_cantor_ap_328.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-117689" title="110318_eric_cantor_ap_328" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/110318_eric_cantor_ap_328.gif" alt="" width="375" height="244" /></a></p>
<p>Dr. Ahmed Tibi, MD, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset and former advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, recently wrote an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch attacking US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for having declared that “If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.” In and of itself hardly a remarkable position considering the history of organized Palestinian Arab terrorism that has gone on unabated since the founding of the PLO in 1964 and before. Yet Dr. Tibi then infers that Mr. Cantor therefore “holds all Palestinians responsible for the violence of a few.”</p>
<p>This interesting assumption made by Dr. Tibi is that Palestinian Arab violence and support of said violence is the handiwork of a “few,” a small minority. To determine whether this is true, two basic issues have to be clarified. One, whether or not said violence is the result of only “a few” who implicitly carry out their violent work against the wishes of the Palestinian Arab leadership and without popular support from the Palestinian Arab population. And two, what is considered to be moderate and non-violent means in the view of Dr. Tibi.</p>
<p>Let’s first take a glance at Dr. Tibi’s own behavior. As noted above, he served as an advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, a man he first met in 1984 in Tunis to where Arafat had fled after being ignominiously chased out of Beirut by the Israelis in 1982. Arafat, head of Fatah and subsequently the entire PLO, was responsible for airplane hijackings, indiscriminate murder of civilian targets, including the September 1972 kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games, the 1973 abduction and murder of Western diplomats in Khartoum, Sudan, &#8211; where Arafat himself personally gave the order to kill US Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats. And after Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and supposedly changed his ways, he and the Palestinian Authority pursued a campaign of massive incitement in the official PA media and school textbooks, and supported ongoing terrorist activities, including suicide bombings, and in its first 5 years more Israeli civilians were murdered by Palestinian Arab terror attacks than in the previous 15 years.  To avoid the guilt by association card, let us examine Dr. Tibi’s own “moderate and non-violent” approach.</p>
<p>Dr. Tibi writes in his op-ed: “I, too, reject the Palestinian violence Cantor mentioned that is directed at Israeli civilians, but unlike Cantor I believe in strengthening nonviolent efforts to overcome Israeli domination.” But does he really believe in “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?</p>
<p>According to a report in the Haaretz daily newspaper, on August 16, 2000, during the Jewish Fast Day of Tisha B’Av (9<sup>th</sup> day of the Hebrew month of Av) when Jews mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, Dr. Tibi, already a Member of Knesset, led a large Arab crowd chanting, &#8220;with blood and fire we will liberate Palestine,&#8221; while physically blocking an annual police-approved pilgrimage of the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful group to enter the Temple Mount. One wonders what part of “with blood and fire” is “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?</p>
<p>As far as the alluded lack of popular support for violence, a March 2008 report by the Palestinian Center for Policy &amp; Survey Research (PSR) noted that 67% of the Palestinian Arab population supported armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside pre-1967 Israel, and not merely Israeli military targets or “settlers,” with only 31% opposed. So much for Dr. Tibi’s “few.”</p>
<p>Dr. Tibi also takes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to task because Mr. Gingrich “recently claimed that we Palestinians are an &#8216;invented people.&#8217; And what, pray tell, are the Americans? Gingrich&#8217;s people are every bit as invented, perhaps more, as they come from every corner of the globe.”</p>
<p>The comparison Dr. Tibi wishes to convey is that if the “Palestinians” are an “invented people,” well so are the Americans. And if the Americans are an “invented people” too, then at the very least, the “Palestinians” are no less entitled to a state than are the citizens of the United States of America (AKA “Gingrich’s people&#8221; by Dr. Tibi). Clever, but the comparison doesn’t quite work.</p>
<p>It is true that the United States is a country comprised of a “melting pot” of citizens who arrived from many other countries around the world. Not only do Americans not deny this (as Dr. Tibi and friends do regarding the invented Palestinians), it is considered an issue of accomplishment and pride among Americans. Further, it is a matter of record that since the formal and recognized establishment of the United States of America in 1781 following the end the American Revolutionary War, the overwhelming percentage of the current American population arrived in the 150 or so years after that time. And in line with the Emma Lazarus sonnet engraved on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty that declares: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” Americans are proud of their humble antecedents. But all these people came to a functioning and internationally recognized country.</p>
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		<title>Netanyahu&#8217;s One-Year Report Card</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/netanyahus-one-year-report-card/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahus-one-year-report-card</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/netanyahus-one-year-report-card/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:06:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=51646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Prime Minister buffers Israel’s strength -- while great danger looms. ]]></description>
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<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-51661" title="Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="282" /></a></p>
<p>“Benjamin Netanyahu, a year into your term, observers seem to agree: You’re an impressive survivor, but just a survivor. The government you lead has no vision, no destination. It’s not going anywhere.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151429.html">Thus</a> Ari Shavit, journalist for Israel’s left-wing daily <em>Haaretz</em>, to Prime Minister Netanyahu early this week. Netanyahu (who took office, actually, last March 31 and has been prime minister less than a year) naturally responded by denying the charge, saying “My vision is of an Israel that is a world technological superpower, anchored in values, reaching peace from strength…. we are working to jump-start the economy, to augment our security and to strengthen Israel through inculcating basic national values.”</p>
<p>Realizing that the charge of “lack of vision” from the Left means mainly “lack of negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria to hand them major Israeli strategic assets,” Netanyahu said the Palestinians and Syria were “present[ing] us with extremist preconditions that they did not present to earlier Israeli governments…. The critics expect us to accept the Palestinian and Syrian dictates; they describe the acceptance of those dictates as a vision. I don’t see it as a vision.”</p>
<p>Tentatively, after almost a year in office, Netanyahu can be described as handling the Palestinian situation artfully: positioning himself as a perceived moderate by expressing openness to the idea of a Palestinian state, while hedging such a hypothetical state with requirements (genuine acceptance of Israel, effective demilitarization, Israeli retention of considerable areas) that no Palestinian leader would accept; helping to position Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas as the intransigent party who—reportedly to American, if not European, annoyance—stonewalls talks.</p>
<p>As for the “Syrian track,” those with an awareness of the Golan Heights’ importance for Israel and of the radical nature of Bashar Assad’s regime can only welcome the fact that Netanyahu’s government has not resumed the previous Olmert government’s Turkish-mediated talks with Damascus.</p>
<p>What of Netanyahu’s other claims? Has Israel been “augmenting its security” this past year or just marking time while Hamas and Hezbollah continue their arms buildups on its borders? Israeli analyst Guy Bechor <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851015,00.html">claims</a> it’s the former, and notes that</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;our borders are quieter than they have been in many years…. The IDF is training today as it has not done in dozens of years. Every day, from morning till night: Tanks, airplanes, helicopters, live-fire drills…. [The IDF] is now the first military in the world equipping its tanks with anti-missile systems, which are changing the rules of war. The IDF is also equipping itself with new APCs, advanced airplanes, and amazing technological systems, while Hezbollah and Syria are still stuck in the ’80s and ’90s…. Moreover, a series of daring assassinations attributed to Israel is prompting personal fears among axis-of-evil leaders.”</p></blockquote>
<p>For Bechor, the upshot is that:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Our enemies realize that the days where Israel conducted itself as a state without honor willing to give in to the advances of those who deceive it are over. They realize that Israel has matured, learned the art of creating deterrence, and that it is here to stay.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Bechor’s analysis doesn’t say why enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and their patron Iran keep building ever-more-dangerous capacities if they’re simply cowed. But it is true that under the Netanyahu government, a trajectory of renewed deterrence has been well sustained up to such recent successes as the presumed <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7034933.ece">Dubai exploit</a> and the air force’s unveiling of a <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=169313">“super-drone”</a> that can reach Iran.</p>
<p>As for “inculcating basic national values,” Netanyahu had in mind a new, 600-million-shekel program launched by his government to restore historical sites and reconnect young Israelis with both the ancient Israelite and modern Zionist past. But whether or not such a massive effort is necessary—and most of the country’s leadership agrees that it is—there are already signs of a revived self-confidence and assertiveness.</p>
<p>The Foreign Ministry’s <a href="http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150918.html">reported snubbing</a> of a congressional delegation sent by the faux “pro-Israel” group J   Street was one such sign. Another is a brand-new, entirely novel initiative by the Foreign Ministry to encourage ordinary Israelis to present Israel’s case abroad with the help of a <a href="http://www.masbirim.gov.il/">new website</a> (in Hebrew) that had already been visited by 130,000 in its first five days.</p>
<p>There are also signs of a mounting, well-deserved intolerance toward the traitorous element from within: Tel Aviv University has <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=168972">come under fierce pressure</a> to fire radical-Left academics who campaign abroad for a boycott of Israel; and the left-wing NGO known as the New Israel Fund is likewise under fire and <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135849">Knesset investigation</a> for funding anti-Israeli groups including some on which the Goldstone commission relied for its <a href="http://www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf">libelous report</a>.</p>
<p>Netanyahu was right, then, to reject the allegation that his only real goal is now his own political survival as he leads a government that is “not going anywhere.” In less than a year his government has been rebuilding Israel’s strength on many fronts. But great danger still looms.</p>
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		<title>When Peace Is Not a Priority</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/when-peace-is-not-a-priority/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=when-peace-is-not-a-priority</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/when-peace-is-not-a-priority/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:09:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=47502</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the Middle East “peace process” keeps going wrong.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47503" title="pales_poster_wideweb__430x353" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/pales_poster_wideweb__430x353.jpg" alt="pales_poster_wideweb__430x353" width="430" height="353" /></p>
<p>U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is here in Israel again, and it’s not stirring much excitement or even interest. On Sunday he <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838598,00.html">met</a> with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the latter saying Mitchell had “interesting ideas” on how to get Israeli-Palestinian talks going again but not saying what the ideas were.</p>
<p>On Friday Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147955549&amp;pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">reiterated</a> to Mitchell his refusal to talk with Netanyahu absent a total ban on Jewish building in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and East Jerusalem. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the fact that Israel had positions at all—on not giving up every inch of the West Bank, on the demilitarization of a future Palestinian state—made negotiating with Israel impossible.</p>
<p>Based on his statements to <em>Time</em> magazine’s Joe Klein last week, it can be surmised that President Barack Obama is not all that surprised by Mitchell’s inability to get anything moving. “This is just really hard,” Obama <a href="http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1955072-6,00.html">told</a> Klein.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Even for a guy like George Mitchell…. Both sides—the Israelis and the Palestinians—have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions or the divisions within their societies, were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation…. From Abbas’ perspective, he’s got Hamas looking over his shoulder and, I think, an environment generally within the Arab world that feels impatient with any process.</p>
<p>“And on the Israeli front—although the Israelis, I think, after a lot of time showed a willingness to make some modifications in their policies, they still found it very hard to move with any bold gestures….”</p></blockquote>
<p>It is easy to poke holes in Obama’s evenhandedness here: the fact that while Netanyahu has been ready at all times to negotiate with Abbas, with not even his most right-wing coalition partners objecting to negotiations per se, it is Abbas who has stonewalled; the fact that it was not “after a lot of time,” but very quickly—in a matter of months since taking office—that Netanyahu made quite bold gestures of reversing his lifelong opposition to a Palestinian state and then announcing an unprecedented ten-month settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria, none of which has sufficed to lure Abbas back to the table.</p>
<p>It is also easy to cite the usual political reasons for the stalemate—that Obama, by hitting Israel hard on the settlements issue particularly in his Cairo speech in June, forced Abbas into an uncompromising stance where he could not appear less Catholic than the pope; that the Palestinians, more generally, saw Obama as an ally and were disappointed when he showed understanding for some of Israel’s positions. All of which is valid—but only grazes the truth.</p>
<p>Looking more deeply into what has “gone wrong”—and has kept going wrong ever since the formal Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process began in 1993—would require taking account, for a change, of the <em>cultural</em> difference between Israel and the Palestinian side.</p>
<p>It was less than three weeks ago that Netanyahu <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60650Y20100107">complained</a> to the White House and State Department about Palestinian incitement—and not by Hamas in Gaza, but by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Netanyahu was reacting to two particularly egregious incidents. In one, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad paid homage to three Palestinian terrorists who had been killed by Israeli forces after murdering an Israeli rabbi and father of seven. In the other, Abbas named a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, the Palestinian woman terrorist who led the “Coastal Road Massacre” in 1978—the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, killing 37 including 10 children. (More details about the Palestinian Authority’s lionization of these killers <a href="http://palwatch.org/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Palestinian_incitement_distances_peace_11-Jan-2010.htm">here</a>.)</p>
<p>Obama, for his part, had no public reaction to Abbas and Fayyad’s behavior, did not mention it in his interview to Klein, and clearly was not deterred by it from sending Mitchell for another round of attempted diplomacy. As Obama <em>did </em>say to Klein: “we are going to continue to work with both parties to recognize what I think is ultimately their deep-seated interest in a two-state solution in which Israel is secure and the Palestinians have sovereignty and can start focusing on developing their economy and improving the lives of their children and grandchildren.”</p>
<p>In other words, even-steven—both sides wanting their peaceful place in the sun. The possibility that peace is not a value for the Palestinian Authority in the way it is for Israel—that there may be an unbridgeable gap between a Western democracy and a non-Western entity that glorifies and perpetrates terrorism—does not, from the evidence available, exist in Obama’s, or Mitchell’s, mental lexicon.</p>
<p>But it is high time that it did, high time that the administration start giving its democratic ally, Israel, more credit and start reexamining the assumption that achieving sovereignty for the Palestinians—Dalal Mughrabi Square and all—is an American interest. Which is, alas, too much to hope for from this administration.</p>
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		<title>Gauging the Iranian Threat</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/gauging-the-iranian-threat-%e2%80%93-by-matt-gurney/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=gauging-the-iranian-threat-%25e2%2580%2593-by-matt-gurney</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gurney]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=45804</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Should Israel – and the world – worry about nuclear-armed mullahs?
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45807" title="GERMANY-SECURITY-CONFERENCE-PROTEST" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/no-nuke-to-mullahs.jpg" alt="GERMANY-SECURITY-CONFERENCE-PROTEST" width="610" height="406" /></p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/12/23/macleans-interview-efraim-halevy/">recent interview</a> with the Canadian news magazine <em>Maclean&#8217;s</em>, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy offered fascinating, expert insight into Israel&#8217;s current security situation.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, his interview focused largely on the questions of Israel&#8217;s relationship with the Palestinians and the threat posed by Iran. On the Palestinian question, Halevy said that the prospect for peace between Israelis and Palestinians hinges upon the ability of the Palestinians to forge their own state, without relying on foreign benefactors to do it for them. (Left unsaid is that such a Palestinian state would have to renounce the fanatical hatred of Israel that has consumed it for three generations.) But the real crux of the interview is Halevy&#8217;s thoughts on the threat posed by Iran.</p>
<p>When asked about Iran developing a nuclear strike capability, Halevy responded with words worth quoting at length:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It is a serious threat. It is not an existential threat. It is not within the power of Iran to destroy the state of Israel — at best it can cause Israel grievous damage. Israel is indestructible. I believe that Israel has a sufficient capability, both offensive and defensive, to take care of any threat, including the Iranian threat.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Few can match Halevy’s expertise. Yet, when he says that Iran at best can “cause Israel grievous damage,” one has to wonder exactly how much damage he means. When discussing the prospect of being attacked with nuclear weapons, what level of destruction would Israel be willing to absorb before it deemed itself destroyed, rather than merely <em>virtually</em> destroyed? And if Iranian-issue nuclear bombs are exploding in Israeli cities, meeting the technical definition of “not destroyed” would hardly be a consolation for the Israeli populace.</p>
<p>It is true that nuclear weapons are not quite as powerful as shown in popular culture. A bomb exploding ten miles away will not instantly and painlessly kill every living thing. The nuclear weapons that Iran is developing would likely be fairly crude designs, not much more powerful than the weapons that America dropped on Japan in 1945. Even so, the difference is academic. A country with a majority of its citizens still alive, but its centers of culture, governance and commerce destroyed, may cling to existence, but the state of Israel, a modern, advanced liberal democracy, would be lost in the scramble to merely survive. It is odd in the extreme to hear Halevy sound so unconcerned with the prospect of a nuclear attack upon his home.</p>
<p>Halevy&#8217;s comments on Israel&#8217;s ability to fend off an attack, or retaliate against one, are also of interest. Israel is a leader in the development of missile defense technology. Indeed, its Iron Dome system was <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&amp;cid=1262339412240">tested successfully</a> just last week. And while never having publicly admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, Israel&#8217;s nuclear stockpile is a known secret. If Iran drops a bomb on Israel, it can expect to receive dozens if not hundreds back. Perhaps, then, Halevy&#8217;s words are not meant for journalists or magazine readers, but for the Iranian regime. If so, Halevy&#8217;s meaning becomes clearer: “You cannot destroy us, we can and will protect ourselves and we don&#8217;t take you as seriously as you do us. Consider that before you mess with us.”</p>
<p>But Halevy’s most noteworthy comments are his observations on the corner into which the Tehran regime has painted itself. “By its own doing,” he said, “Iran has created a situation whereby it cannot reach an ultimate accommodation with the U.S. without relinquishing its active pursuit of the destruction of Israel — because the U.S. would never permit this to happen.” Halevy’s hope is that Iran, when it realizes that it is in an untenable position, will seek a truce with Washington by backing off its threats to Israel.</p>
<p>Halevy could be right that a solution to the Iranian threat is just a matter of time. Recent events, however, give little cause for optimism. Iran is once again in the midst of a brutal crackdown on dissidents. The recent death of a <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Protests+mark+funeral+dissident+Iranian+cleric/2364991/story.html">prominent reformist cleric</a> has led to renewed protests and a subsequent assault by the Iranian state upon its own people. Hundreds have <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzaQsCBZVkviDlZFZJ-6w88tMk5g">been arrested</a> for protesting, cast into a prison system known for its <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/10/world/main5229665.shtml">systemic abuses of human rights</a>. The arrested include reformists, journalists and members of the Bahai faith. Other journalists have already been sentenced to <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/bal-te.iran04jan04,0,6512392.story">jail or exile</a>. Iran’s reformist leader, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, has paid a personal price for his opposition to the Ahmadinejad regime. His young nephew, Ali, is among the latest protesters to be <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137940.html">killed by Iranian security forces</a>.</p>
<p>As if this isn’t troubling enough, Iran continues to provoke the West through outright belligerence. Next month it will hold large-scale <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/03/iran.defense.drill/">military exercises</a>, designed to prepare the country’s armed forces to resist an armed attack by foreign enemies, a rather transparent euphemism for America and Israel. The absurdity of this hardly needs to be pointed out: if Iran would simply behave responsibly as a cooperative, transparent member of the international community, such provocative exercises would be unnecessary, as there would be no reason for Iran to fear attack. If Iran accepts any of the numerous international agreements already proposed as an alternative to its continuing to developing its nuclear program, the threat of war would vanish overnight.</p>
<p>Despite former Mossad chief Halevy’s confidence that Iran does not pose an existential threat to Israel, Iran seems to be doing its best to convince the world otherwise. At this date, it is hard to know who is right. But when a country as provocative as Iran presses ahead with its nuclear program, and shows no signs of backing down, it’s hard to share Halevy’s optimism.</p>
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		<title>Forgetting the Two-State Solution &#8211; by Joseph Klein</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/joseph-klein/forgetting-the-two-state-solution-by-joseph-klein/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=forgetting-the-two-state-solution-by-joseph-klein</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:04:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Does the UN support the existence of a Jewish state?
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40294" title="israel_flag" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/israel_flag.jpg" alt="israel_flag" width="400" height="298" /></p>
<p>Ever since 1977, the United Nations has sponsored the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”<em> </em>to mark November 29th, the date in 1947 when the UN General Assembly approved its partition resolution. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called November 29th a “day of mourning and a day of grief.” It takes place every year at UN headquarters in New York and at the UN Offices at Geneva and Vienna and elsewhere. This year it was observed on November 30<sup>th</sup> since the 29<sup>th</sup> was a Sunday.</p>
<p>In honor of this year’s “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a special “Message” stating that sixty-two years ago, “the General Assembly, resolution 181, put forth a vision of two States.” He said that the “State of Israel exists” but the “State of Palestine does not.”</p>
<p>I asked the Secretary General’s spokesperson at the press briefing at UN headquarters on that day if Ban Ki-moon has a position on whether the two-state solution should include specific protection of Israel as a <em>Jewish</em> state. After all, the whole purpose of establishing the state of Israel in the first place was to create a Jewish homeland where Jews would no longer be a persecuted minority who were told that they do not belong in the country in which they happened to reside. The international community at the time passed the partition resolution knowing full well that its vision of two states included a Jewish state living side by side with a Palestinian state. But the Arab states rejected the UN partition resolution – the original two-state solution. The Jewish state accepted it.</p>
<p>Fast forward sixty-two years. President Obama, when he addressed the General Assembly in September, talked about a Jewish state of Israel living side-by-side in peace with a Palestinian sovereign state. But in a press briefing at UN headquarters on September 22nd, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad rejected the idea of a Jewish state. He said it “was not part of the Palestinian Authority’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.”</p>
<p>My question to the Secretary General’s spokesperson was meant to elicit whether Ban Ki-moon had the courage to reaffirm the UN General Assembly’s original vision &#8211; a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security. The answer was, No.</p>
<p>“We don’t have a position on that,” said Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson. “We have said it over and over again. What we do recognize is the need for the existence of two States, living side-by-side. We don’t actually want to venture into determining what each State will be like. I think it’s for the people of those States to determine what those States will be. What I would say is that, for us, it is important that the two-State solution be carried through.”</p>
<p>Every November the United Nations makes a public spectacle of mourning what it had recommended as a peaceful solution to the Arab-Jewish dispute over the Palestine Mandate territory sixty-two years ago. The UN is effectively repudiating its own original two-state solution, spurned by all of the Arab countries back in 1947 but accepted by Israel and backed back then by the international community.</p>
<p>The Palestinians continue to insist on their own state, to be governed as they wish – very likely under Islamic law. The UN is rallying to their cause and blaming Israel for defending itself against unremitting terrorist attacks. And gone is the clear international recognition of the reason that Israel was established in the first place.</p>
<p>The Palestinians will not even come to the negotiating table until they get their way completely on certain pre-conditions, such as a total freeze of all settlement activity. But negotiations, if they ever start in earnest, are doomed to fail if the Palestinians and their enablers refuse to recognize Israel’s right of self-determination to live in peace and security as a Jewish state.</p>
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