French Hubris and Palestinian Perfidy

"I can see that this has been weakened on the ground and in the minds. If we let it wither away then it would be a risk for Israel's security to which we are resolutely attached."
"However, I am realistic on what this conference can achieve. Peace will only be done by the Israelis and Palestinians and by nobody else. Only bilateral negotiations can succeed."
French President Francois Hollande

French President Francois Hollande delivers his New Year wishes to members of the foreign diplomatic corps, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Ian Langsdon/Pool

"It's a rigged conference, rigged by the Palestinians with French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel stances."
"This pushes peace backwards. It's not going to obligate us. It's a relic of the past."
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu

If Francois Hollande believes what he expressed in his statement above, then what is the purpose of his having taken centre stage in once again manoeuvring Israel into a corner? France ignominiously voted at the United Nations along with all other members of the Security Council to deprive Israel of any support whatever in this ongoing conspiracy of isolation and blame of it and it alone for failure to arrive at an accommodation with the Palestinians. The sanctimonious tone of that statement is in direct contrast to France's actions.

Scheduled to take place in Paris on January 15, 72 nations will send representatives to the conference that President Hollande has called, for the purpose of endorsing an international framework for peace between the conflicting principals, Israel and the Palestinians. Israel is not at war with the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has, and continues to, incite its population to violence against the Jewish State. And while the State of Israel recognizes that the Palestinians want a state of their own, the Palestinians refuse to recognize the reality of a Jewish state in their midst.

Israel has been prepared, through previous negotiations, to surrender to the Palestinians most of their demands. Israel's sole 'demand' of the Palestinians can be addressed by the fact that it wants to live at peace with its neighbour. But until Israel was forced by incessant lethal attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, to build a separating wall, peace was not to be found. And nor is it yet to be found from an incorrigible dedication to destroying Israel expressed by Palestinians in Gaza under Hamas under whose charter the destruction of Israel is the first order of business.

It is not for lack of attempting to negotiate reasonably and fairly with the Palestinians that all such negotiations have failed. Time and time again Israeli negotiators have been given the authority to submit to Palestinians' demands, and time and time again, though most of those demands have been met, the Palestinian negotiators were instructed to walk away. The signal demands of "right of return" by the original estimated 700,000 Palestinians (and their descendants who now number in the millions) who fled when Israel declared its statehood after accepting the UN's partition plan which the Palestinians summarily rejected, and demands that east Jerusalem be surrendered to the Palestinians cannot be accommodated for obvious reasons.

That President Hollande of France feels himself obligated to bring the world together to sit once again in judgement of Israel -- which is effectively what is occurring -- at the conference two days hence -- is beyond absurd. This is a president of a country that is incapable of defending itself against Islamists with French citizenship. France has absorbed a number of deadly terrorist attacks coordinated both from within France and from jihadis entering France from elsewhere. The millions of Muslims that France has absorbed has created mass dysfunction, and critical threats. French Jews have become increasingly under threat by French Islamists.

And with this record of pathetic coping, President Hollande feels entitled to act as primary negotiator in this matter. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahu nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been invited to attend the conference. A conference convened for the express purpose of 'solving' the dilemma of two peoples living side by side in constant enmity and threat. A situation where world opinion through the auspices of the United Nations had made it clear that sympathies are constrained toward Israel, and empathy wholly handed out to the Palestinians. An absurdity of profound proportions when the attacked are blamed and the attackers are seen as the victims.

President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement evades direct peace talks with Israel. Demanding that settlement construction first be stopped. But over the years peace talks ended in no advance toward accommodation of each side by the other in an unbalanced act of evasion and doublespeak where the Palestinians portray themselves to the international community as the oppressed whereas their violence has forced Israel to become an 'occupier' in self-defence. President Netanyahu reiterates to a deaf world that the conflict can be resolved only by direct peace talks, repeatedly inviting his counterpart to resume negotiations.