The Darkest Place

Ramallah
Photo by Reuters

Hail the returning conqueror. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, having plead the case for the poor, abject Palestinians within the forum of the United Nations, is welcomed home a hero. It was balm to his wounded soul to be the subject of all that anxious grovelling on the part of the United States, the European Union and others all inspired to make an additional effort to sway him from his objective.

Objective? Why to continue the track the PA has found so successful to date. Urging the international community to view the Palestinians as wronged, dreadfully wronged, and the State of Israel and the Jews therein - and elsewhere wherever they taint the geography - as fiendishly racist, merciless occupiers determined to refuse justice for the Palestinians.

Highly successful a public relations move, too. Inspiring those sanctimonious Jew-baiters on the left who have managed to proclaim themselves as spiritually high-minded and practically progressive, to champion the plight of the Palestinians and in revenge take steps to slander, embarrass, challenge and delegitimize Israel.

That it was the Palestinians who in 2000 and 2008, when offered their demands in exchange for peace, spurned the final offers appears totally irrelevant. Mahmoud Abbas stood in that great Hall of Shame and Blame and spouted the nonsense that it was Israel, time and again that had shut down the peace talks, not the Palestinian Authority.

Never before during talks was it demanded that settlement abandonment be the primary requisite for talk-resumption. That elusive resumption of talks must hinge on something that presents as unachievable is now a given; if it is not the settlements, it is the right of return, if it is not the right of return it is the status of Jerusalem for it is Israel alone that must sacrifice; Palestinians are entitled.

The Prime Minister of Israel, a skilled diplomat who had once frequented as an ambassador the very halls and assemblies he now addressed, sought to put perspective and balance into the discussion, while acknowledging that neither were a recognizable commodity in discussing the place of the State of Israel within the confines of the United Nations.

‘Remember that even in the darkest place the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.’ Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country.”

Mr. Netanyahu made his own appeal:

"I came here to speak the truth. The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East, at all times but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn't let that happen."

What Mr. Netanyahu has allowed to slip his mind is that truth is an inconvenience, a deterrence, an irrelevance, an absurd delirium and an obstacle within the United Nations. Truth may be absolute, like reality, but the reality and the truth that prevails in the United Nations is quite unlike what is recognized outside of its confines.

A total perversion of recognizable truth and reality is what takes place within the United Nations. For from its noble inception it has undergone an inconceivable alteration, a total corruption of responsibility and integrity, honesty and reliability. Look for truth there if you will. Prepare not to be taken unaware.

Prepare to witness expedience's stranglehold on truth, aided and abetted by group interests by bodies whose interests are totally and explicably inimical to truth.