Monday, September 26, 2011

The United Nations and Palestinian Statehood

If the U.N. were to take some action toward upgrading their opinion of Palestinian statehood, some Israelis have advocated "punishing" the Palestinian Authority. Why? Who cares what the U.N. calls Palestine (West Bank and Gaza Strip)? The realities on the ground will remain the same if neither side changes course. Perhaps it will put Abbas in a stronger position with his own people, allowing him to make some of the concessions needed to come to an agreement with Israel or avoiding premature real statehood responsibility. Perhaps it will remove the urgency of creating a real Palestinian state, allowing it to continue to grow economically to reach a position where it will more likely behave as a good partner with Israel (which seems to be Netanyahu's plan?). The only loser would be the U.N. which would be pushed to the side by reality.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Not Just Tolerated

To create peace between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, both sides must do more than just begrudgingly tolerate each other. To many Arabs, Israel is an anomaly that should have no right to exist. After years, it has become obvious to them that Israel does exist and will not go away. But any concession in negotiation is overly generous. In the proper order of things, Jews are not supposed to be equals in their own country,but rather a subserviant minority.
On the other hand, there are some Jews who believe that the Land of Israel (the same land which the Arabs call Palestine) was given to the Jews by God. To them, allowing any Arabs to live in that land is an act of extreme generosity. This attitude is equally unfair and delusional.
Just as Hamas can use that kind of logic to justify its rocket attacks on Israel and complain when Israel retaliates, extreme right wing Jews can use a similar logic to justify the West Bank settlements and ignoring the rights of Arabs in the Palestinian territories and in some cases even Arab citizens of Israel.
One can hope that one day the rational people on both sides can come together to create a land that recognizes the rights of all the inhabitants of the land whether it ends up split into 2 or 3 countries or is unified into one.