Thursday, September 29, 2011

Netanyahu’s ‘Jewish state’ stipulation a red herring

The United Nations, the EU, Russia and the US, as members of “the Quartet,” have stepped into the breach to break the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians before the UN Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood takes place. The US, long ago referred to as an honest broker, is now recognized as unfit because it is inextricably entwined with Israel’s interests. Its decades-long efforts have failed because it has acted like Tel Aviv’s advocate rather than an impartial intermediary.

The Quartet has produced a time-lined proposal aimed at the two-sides reaching agreement by the end of 2012 but, thus far, neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have given their okay. The US terms the proposal as “realistic and serious” but given that President Barack Obama promised the Palestinians a state by September this year and now says his country will veto the Palestinians’ UN application for statehood, Washington’s pledges are no longer credible.

While the Israeli government looks upon the proposal favorably subject to study, the Palestinian Authority (PA) say it’s unacceptable because it does not address the need for Israel to cease settlement expansion and fails to stipulate that any new Palestinian state should be drawn along pre-1967 borders as Obama advocated earlier this year before he was slapped down by the Israeli lobby and Congress.

Abbas insists that the ethnic cleansing (his words) of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the construction of Jewish homes on the West Bank must cease before face-to-face talks can resume. He’s absolutely right to set that precondition when as each month passes Israel steps up construction shrinking even the 22 percent of historic Palestine that the PA has agreed to accept.