ISRAELI /PALESTINIAN ROAD MAP TO PEACE IS A HOAX, BUT A PALESTINIAN STATE WILL BE A REALITY.

By


Joseph Chez

5-19-2011


On the eve of the arrival of Israel’s Prime Minister, today President Obama speaks to the nation reassuring its unwavering commitment to the security of Israel, but, he will also call for peace negotiations to continue for an eventual two state solution. Yet, don’t hold your breath as there is no reset of US policy on this issue. So what is the point? Today’s speech by the President Obama is merely to signal to Israel and to the American Christian conservatives that US policy remains status quo ante.

The unwavering Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on the other hand, comes to the US on Friday to speak before Congress, and members of Congress will heed his warning, that imminent mutual assured destruction for both nations is at hand - if the US does not stand steadfast with Israel against the chill of the Arab spring or the terrorist Muslims wanting to take over the Holy Land. Once again, he will utter the unthinkable, that the world’s two pillars of democracy, the US and Israel, are being threatened by extremist Islamist. Benjamin Netanyahu will also assure Congress, that Israel wants peace but that it can not make peace with terrorist. He will even share with Congress that Israel has made and will further make additional concessions if only; the Palestinians will go back to the bargaining table. Yes, he will say, Israel is ready to accept peace with the Palestinians and we will even grant them partial state hood with limited sovereignty. However, the real message to our President and for Congress is that the US must not endorse or vote in favor of statehood for the Palestinians – if an accord is not derived from a meaningful and crafted road map for peace through negotiations.

However, President Obama and Congress should truly consider the potential consequences of continued biased and blind support for the State of Israel. Our nation should realize that the road map for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been a deliberate hoax from the beginning; a road map for peace that has led the Palestinians and the rest of the world to believe that at the end, peace and a two state solution would be achieved. However, the reality is that the Palestinians as well as the rest of the world have been duped to believe Israel has had a bona fide intent to make peace with the Palestinians when in fact, it has not.

But, in spite of the tremendous efforts by numerous countries who have coaxed Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, the world has witnessed the Madrid Conference, the Oslo Accord, the Sharm-el Sheikh Memorandum, the Camp David Summit, and other interim peace talk agreements, efforts which have only ended up in failure. But what is to be expected when you have in the mix, a biased benefactor party and arbitrator, plus you have Israel maintaining a demeaning and harsh military occupation on Palestinian land? Clearly, this does not cultivate the seeds for peace. Accordingly, any road map for peace, as devised by Israel or the United States, can only have one outcome – and that is, to end up at square one. The solution for this is for the US to step aside and allow the United Nations to decide this important matter.

Moreover, we must acknowledge the fact that at each peace conference or bargaining sit down, the United States has always announced that both parties must hash it out between the two and that it is not for others to impose peace. Furthermore, every time an agreement is reached, the framework outlining the series of steps for the accord always gives Israel the final word in whether the Palestinians complied with the agreement or not. Thus, Israel has cleverly learned and has therefore been doing the obvious to avoid reproach or condemnation from the rest of the world; it has portrayed itself as a willing partner in any peace talk negotiations, when in fact, Israel’s only intentions were to buy out time. And as the Israeli saying goes: sure, we’ll sit down and negotiate – and we’ll wait them out.

Last year, VP Joe Biden and President Obama were openly disgraced by the Israeli government, by blatantly approving continued building in the West Bank in spite of US objections. So bold was Netanyahu that he agreed to return to negotiations if only, the US would provide Israel with some of its most sophisticated anti-radar detection aircraft. President Obama did send such offerings and Israel did officially returned to the peace table – only to immediately thereafter end the peace talks. More recently however, George Mitchell, US Special Envoy to oversee Israeli/Palestinian peace negotiations, resigned his post. No doubt, he realized the folly of the make-believe intentions by the Israelis concerning making peace with the Palestinians.

However, something unforeseen has happened, something not mentioned in the Bible, the Quran or the Torah; an Arab Spring began raging through the region and it has brought unforeseen consequences, surely not expected or advantageous to Israel or the US. Already, ruthless dictators have fallen due to the Arab Spring, but it is expected to continue to topple kings and sheiks. So today, Israel finds itself constipated by the lack of support by dictators and princely neighbors, who up to now, had been paid well by the US to look the other way while Israel had its way.

Surely Netanyahu must be feeling the chill of the Arab Spring, but, is it not also time for Israel to realize that the world is wising up to Israel’s misdeeds, pretexts, and failure to heed international law? In fact, there is no need for peace talks, as there is already in place, standing UN Resolutions which mandates Israel to return to a pre 1967 borders and thereby, allow for a two state solution.

In sum, the world should realize, that the State of Israel has been playing everybody for fools and that the Palestinians were right to conclude, that getting off the road map for peace is the only hope for a Palestinian state to exist. Accordingly, on September 2011, the Palestinians will be petitioning the United Nations General Assembly for a declaration for state hood and thus create a new State of Palestine. And rightly so; many nations around the world are lining up to support this endeavor.

So, what is the US to do now, especially in a time of the Arab Spring? Should the US continue to place its own national security at risk by further supporting an intransigent religious state? I argue that our best interest lies with what is right; this religious and tribal conflict must be brought to and end. A two state solution must be arbitrated or mandated by the United Nations, whose only interest lies within the rule of law. Furthermore, the United States of America must not be blind-sided by religious mush, which purports to give us God’s grace if we side with the people of the book. Whose book I ask? Regrettably, the world can not undo the misdeeds of the British Balfour Declaration or the declaration of an independent State of Israel in 1948. But surely, we can end this tribal strife and bring peace to the region by such declaration at the United Nations General Assembly this coming fall, and give the Palestinians their own sovereign state.

Therefore, present circumstances beg the question; should we not consider that our own national security is greater than the religious ties we have with Israel? It should be noted that the First Amendment of our United States Constitution guarantees us freedom of religion, but also, freedom from the practice of religion. Accordingly, it should be evident that exercising a foreign policy which supports a religious state such as Israel, whose whole existence is based on the premise of divine right, violates the very foundation of our Constitution.

The time is at hand, we can make a difference in the Middle East, or, choose to fall victim to detrimental and monumental harm which may come to us. We must therefore reset our foreign policy on the Israeli/Palestinian issue and we must choose to play fair. But we must not stand in the way of a new Palestinian state.