The Peninsula Newspaper
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 02:00
A lot of facts and views in addition to political games and clowning, which continued for decades over half a century, unfolded in the United Nations and its corridors in dealing with the option of a Palestinian state and getting a full membership.
Palestinians waited more than 70 years. They got nothing but more of the losses and grief. They kept patience for more than 20 years of negotiations after the Madrid Conference and the Oslo agreement. They got only marginalization, isolation and blockade, while settlements in the West Bank is expanding and engulfing more land. The time has come to change the rules of the game!
(1) The international support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, represent the results of the poll, conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC World News). It included 19 countries from around the world and more than 20,000 people participated. The poll showed 49 percent support for the recognition of a Palestinian state in order to obtain a full membership at the United Nations.
The BBC commented that the half of the population of the world supports a Palestinian state. It was not surprising that the Israeli government, which is against the option of a peaceful settlement and imposes its racist policies in the north, will not be happy with the Palestinian Authority’s decision to go to the United Nations, but it was strange that the “Hamas”, which extends its control over the south, had the same view!
There is no doubt that everyone is living in a historic crisis, but its big impact these days is on the Israeli side, which is living in isolation and confusion. The Arab revolutions have changed the old and worn rules of the game, which were imposed by the policies and interventions in the region. The United States retreated its position, after the political and military adventures, of bias to the successive Israeli governments. Now it is facing the domino effect on its security and stability and the collapse of its economy due to its involvement in two failed military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the same way Europe is also facing major crises that might result in the break up of the Union. Europe always supported Israel directly and indirectly with weapons, equipment and advanced technology and through the revival of the economy to ensure its permanent superiority on the surrounding countries.
The Israeli dream of integration in the region also collapsed with the expulsion of Israeli ambassadors in Ankara and Cairo and the departure of embassy crew from Jordan. Jordan’s King Abdullah II in a statement said that Israel is afraid now. The situation is more difficult than ever.
(2) Everyone had expected the US position that it will create the obstacles, use the alliances with major powers due to the lack of a quorum in the Security Council that allows the voting for a Palestinian state and threaten to use veto, but the surprise which no one expected that the President Barack Obama will become a spokesman for Netanyahu’s government, even the Israeli press also mocked of Obama’s remarks.
The newspaper “Yediot Aharonot”, pointed out that Obama’s speech did not adopt only all Israeli arguments about the United Nations’ recognition of a Palestinian state which is held by one side only, but he also adopted the basic Israeli version which says: The Jewish state is a small country surrounded by enemies who are looking to eliminate it and its children are at risk every day while the neighbors bring up their children with hatred and war as well as it is threatened by a nuclear danger!! Obama’s administration has entered a dark tunnel and it is very difficult for it to get out of the same, especially when it is losing its influence in the region day after day.
What is the message that Obama can deliver to the Arab and Islamic world “tomorrow”, as he did at the University of Cairo “Yesterday”! How he will explain “today” his country’s stand against the establishment of a Palestinian state which he once promised. How he will act if Congress managed to halt financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is estimated at $600m annually! The bigger question lies in the nature of the answer to be given in response to the questions from the people of the US, which is still raised after the events of September 11, 2001, and its effects on a few metres away from the UN building and most the importantly “Why do they hate us” in the Arab and Muslim world?!
(3) The Gulf position is commendable and it was clearer than the position of some Arab States and even more clear than some of Palestinian factions, especially “Hamas”.
The Emir of Qatar, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, asked the United Nations to give justice to the Palestinian people and help them to establish their own independent State, by raising the issue of the declaration on the establishment of a Palestinian state before the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani chaired the Arab Monitoring Committee, an Arab ministerial committee of the Arab League to follow up the peace settlement and support the Palestinian issue at the United Nations. Qatar has also contributed in providing international experts to provide advice and appropriate opinions for the preparation of legal and political documents and necessary procedures to ensure the high readiness of the Palestinian file.
Doha has seen the first campaign “Palestinian Nation” of its kind to support the decision of the President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to go to the United Nations. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal confirmed the Saudi position to invite the Member States of the United Nations (192 countries) to recognise the State of Palestine on the line of June 4,1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital and support for Palestine to get a full membership in the United Nations. Prince Turki Al Faisal through the “New York Times” gave a warning against the use of “veto” in the Security Council, against the draft of independent Palestinian state, stressing that the all Arabs are behind the Palestinians to get their independent state.
He pointed out that the United States’ use of its veto against a Palestinian state for the full membership of the United Nations, will end the relationship between the two countries’ Saudi Arabia and the United States” and harm the United States within the Arab world.
All of this comes in response to the recent miserable and desperate Israeli leaks, published in the international media, which indicated that there are vigorous efforts by the Jewish state to compensate for its losses with Egypt, Jordan and Turkey finding out an alternative to the lost alliances, through rapprochement with Saudi Arabia and its neighbours in the Arabian Gulf! Certainly in the new political landscape in the Middle East the the old game is over.
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