Chastising Consultations

Israeli ambassadors were summoned for 'consultations' in five European capitals.  They were warned during those 'consultations' by European officials of the displeasure of the European community over Israel's response to the UN General Assembly's acquiescence with Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas quest for observer-state status within the United Nations.  Israel's dependable staunch supporters proved to be somewhat less staunch and dependable than she had hoped.

Italian Premier Mario Monti and French President Francois Hollande avowed as how they were "deeply worried" by Israel's stated settlement plans.  Plans long in the making, but announced a day following jubilation in the West Bank at having achieved their desired status, marking a one-upsmanship triumph over Israel.  Considerable support went to the PA within the UN, with a yes vote of 139, 9 nos, and 41 abstentions.

Ah, those settlements.  The building of homes for Jewish settlers.  Who feel they have business in the geography of their forbears.  The settlement building in fact creates a considerable number of high-quality, well-paid construction jobs.  And it is not Israeli Jews who take advantage of those opportunities.  Good employment is hard to come by in the Palestinian Territories, and Palestinian Arabs are eager to take up the work.  And they do.

Palestinian laborers work at a construction site in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Adumin near Jerusalem, December 4, 2012, Reuters

 No country, even its staunchest ally, Canada, supports Israel's move to move forward with increased housing construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.  "However, the PA's action and provocative rhetoric at the United Nations would obviously elicit a response from Israel.  Neither is helpful to advance the cause of peace and we do not support either", said Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Israel builds settlements.  Which the Palestinian Authority bellows is a dire threat to peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state.  However, the Palestinian Authority steadfastly refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state.  Without that recognition who will the PA bargain for peace with?  The 'occupier' practising apartheid to ensure its citizens remain safe from murder rampages by Palestinians?

Israel, claims the Palestinian Authority, must be stopped by the UN Security Council, from its "methodically and aggressively pushing ahead with its unlawful land grab and colonization of Palestine".  This ultra concern for their rights to the land has never compelled them to bargain in good faith with Israel to finally settle the matter of peace between the two countries to culminate in two side-by-side states.

The PA does not really envision two states, but one.  And Israel simply happens to be sitting on part of their state.  The PA authorizes its people to confront the enemy, to 'resist', codeword for committing violence in a demonstration of 'resistance' to oppression by an enemy it claims is busy in an ethnic cleansing program to clear the territories of its Palestinian Arab populations. 

When, in fact, the contrary represents the truth; a covert plan to destroy the Jewish presence in the Territories, of which the land upon which Israel sits comprises an integral portion.  Whatever means it will take - violence and mass slaughter by Hamas if they can manage it with the help of Iran (plus encouragement from Qatar, Turkey and Egypt), and diplomacy larded with the slander of illegitimacy by Fatah, with the help of the international community.

Recognizing Israel is not congenial to this plan.  With that recognition would come the expectation of sharing the land.  Negotiations could lead to excerpting from Israel's borders those portions hosting majority Arab-Israeli populations who would join the greater Palestinian Arab population within their own borders, while parts of the West Bank where Jewish settlements are established would be carved out to join a new border for Israel.

This kind of plan which makes absolute good sense, separating the two groups within their own inviolable borders, and equalizing the land to represent the aspirations of each, is too difficult a concession for the Palestinian Authority to even contemplate, for it would mean surrender to common sense and a final adieu to conflict.

Keeping the conflict alive and well ensures that the future may hold a single state, ruled by Palestine.