Champing The UN Bid

"There are some who might want to wait until after November because of American pressure, but the Americans have done nothing but put pressure on the Palestinians, without delivering anything.  What we need is to move fast."  Hanan Ashrawi, PLO Executive Committee

This is the voice of the senior members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah movement who are inspired to call for swifter action to accomplish the fait accompli that will put the final nail in the coffin of a potential peace agreement with Israel.  This is an agreement that Fatah has never, ever put their signature toward achieving, however. 

A legally-binding document that would be recognized internationally that would put s.t.o.p. to the PA's traditional urging of "resistance" in favour of recognition and co-operation does not reflect the aspirations of the Palestinians.  The empty pantomime of bargaining for peace that resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize for the protagonists was as absurdly unwarranted as making Barack Obama a Nobel Laureate.

Neither the Palestinians, through the savage slyness of Yasser Arafat, who in the end, rejected the very plan he had publicly endorsed to world acclaim, nor the newly-elected president of the United States had actually produced anything remotely resembling value to the ongoing and elusive search for peace and stability; the former for the conflict still simmering, the latter for the world at large.

Both Israel and the Palestinians feel deflated and disappointed at the lacklustre interventions of the Obama administration in failing to advance a peace settlement between the two.  The United States, the traditional interlocutor, with successive presidents having attempted, one after the one, to succeed where their predecessors had failed, needn't knock itself out due to failure.

It takes two equally-vested partners to work in sincere tandem to achieve a solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem.  Enthusiasm is lacking on one side, and trustworthiness on the other - the latter leading, through one series of let-downs after the other to the former, and spawning in the process an attitude that it all seems pointless and finally averse to solution.

The General Assembly recognition of "Palestine" sought now by the Palestinian Authority would grant it the kind of universal legitimacy that it now enjoys on a more casual basis.  It would serve to consolidate borders that would be far less open to negotiation, but the PA is not open to negotiation in any event.  Such negotiations resulting in a transfer of geography from one to the other to re-balance the existence of settlements versus villages pose as a possible solution, but the PA is not in the market for those solutions.

When and if the PA succeeds in its unilateral marketing effort to achieve a triumphant acknowledgement to put the lock and throw-away key on negotiations, it will be considered essentially an agreement from the international community through the General Assembly that there is nothing the PA could do henceforth that would fall under criticism, and it could proceed to achieve what it has set out to do.

If, that is, the State of Israel was prepared to live in perpetuity with an armed and dangerously-intentioned neighbour continuing the state of mutual siege both have lived miserably under for far too long.  There would be repercussions and they would be of a material nature for the Palestinians.  Israel would far prefer the PA return to the negotiating table with a resolve to accomplish a meaningful conclusion.

"If the Palestinians really wanted to improve the situation here on the ground and try to take the first step toward some reasonable solution of the conflict, they should have invested all their efforts in diplomatic moves in the region", complained Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

But, no.  "We discussed the different scenarios ... and decided to go [to the General Assembly] regardless of the pressure and the threats.  The date is up to the Arab League...  For us, the sooner the better", rejoined a Fatah official.  "I have no doubt that when we go to the General Assembly, we will get a big majority of votes there", added an Abbas aide.

No doubt he's right.

The Palestinians are counting on the influence of the Arab and Muslim bloc in that great institute that administers the world's version of justice and fairness and peace between nations, above all.  With the help of Arab and Muslim states, and colleagues from the Non-Aligned Movement, nothing is impossible, particularly with the additional help of some European countries anxious to support the move.