Don’t Wait, Declare the State – Tariq Shadid

Mahmoud Abbas is left with only one opportunity to change the course of a failed diplomatic strategy: he should repair the ties with Hamas immediately, and subsequently declare an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the West Bank and Gaza, based on the borders of June 4, 1967.

He should stop addressing the Israelis, but instead call upon the international community to recognize the Palestinian state that all the nations of the world have been waiting for since 1993, perhaps even since 1967. A world-wide recognition of this state would put an end to the fait accompli status that the current ‘peace talks’ have been providing for the illegal Israeli settlements, the de-Arabization of East Jerusalem, and the land-grabs associated with the Apartheid wall.

However, Abbas seems to be unable to seize even this opportunity to push decades of failed politics into a better direction, at least not with the proper attitude. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 1 station, he was quoted on October 17 as saying that he is “ready to put an end to historic demands”. When asked about Israeli demands that he explicitly recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas said: “Enough with that. We recognize the state of Israel, and it is already a Jewish state.”

Just imagine – it is difficult to believe, but these are words spoken by a Palestinian of whom it is claimed that he represents all of his people.

 

The failure of ‘Oslo’

Having been an ‘Oslo-critic’ from day one, it is not easy for me to put myself in the position of the PNA administration, or to pretend that I am a believer in the ‘diplomatic solution’. However, with considerable effort, I can always try to see along which lines those who do believe in it are thinking, and try to analyze which steps have to be undertaken in order to bring home some results with this approach.

But even when viewed through so-called ‘pragmatic’ instead of ‘idealistic’ eyes, the weakness of the existing strategy becomes blatantly obvious. It was 17 years ago since the two-state solution was projected as being the only viable solution that would be supported by the world’s superpowers, the United Nations, and the Arab League. During this entire period, the illegal Israeli occupation has not been sufficiently challenged in the diplomatic arena. And as long as this remains the case, nothing that will bring the outcome of an independent Palestinian state even one step closer to reality, should be expected from ‘peace talks’.

Let’s have a look how this dreadful safari into the jungle of international politics has worked out for the Palestinians, and we might end up with an idea about which steps could be taken from here to somehow make the best of it.

 

The ‘endangered peace process’

We have seen the emergence of the so-called ‘Apartheid Wall’, that constituted a major Israeli land-grab in itself, and we have seen a tripling of the Israeli settler population in the very areas that were envisaged to become part of the Palestinian state. We have seen an explosion of huge settlements connected together by ‘Jew-only’ fenced-off roads and witnessed the violent de-Arabization of occupied East Jerusalem – all of these things happening during an era in which the world population was lulled into sleep with promises of an independent Palestine. What exactly is there to negotiate, if 17 years of negotiations have yielded these horrendous results?

Israel is proving on a daily basis – and it has done so ever since its inception – that it is completely immune to all forms of direct or indirect diplomacy. For this reason, if any result at all is to be expected from diplomatic efforts, Israel should not be negotiated with, but challenged in front of the international community. International law is not on Israel’s side, nor are the vast majority of UN resolutions on the subject, yet these legal advantages have never been exploited properly. Even diplomacy can be a form of resistance – but not if you just sit on your chair and watch things unfold, without sticking out your neck and taking a certain amount of risk.

As has been the case ever since the Oslo agreements in 1993, the world’s media have been painting a picture of hope, perpetuating the idea in people’s minds that the troubled region can put its differences to an end through negotiations. Anything that threatens to undermine this hope is therefore presented in the news as a potential tragedy. It seems that the best way to keep people hanging on to a dream, is to threaten them with a wake-up call.

 

Obama, Oh bummer

There is no doubt that a failure of the talks between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel would indeed be very bad news for the Obama administration. The government in Washington is on the verge of entering into the mid-term elections, widely seen as an evaluation of the government by the people.

Given the fact that Obama has been having a major problem in popularity, illustrated most vividly by the emergence of the so-called ‘Tea Party’, it can only be assumed that there must be a lot of stress going on in the Oval Office these days. It is becoming less and less likely that Obama will be able to stand victoriously through the mid-term elections, with the power card in his pocket of having been able to achieve what everyone has been considering almost impossible: reconciliation between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

 

 

 

The only good Palestinian

The way that Israel has been behaving throughout 2010, with the blood of the Freedom Flotilla martyrs still dripping from its hands, and the deception of its so-called ‘settlement freeze’ having been exposed for all to see, will make it very difficult for the Obama adminstration to blame any failure on the Palestinians in ‘Bill Clintonesque’ fashion.

Since Western powers seem to have adopted the axiom that ‘the only good Palestinian is a quiet and docile Palestinian with no will of his own’, they are left in the uncomfortable position of having absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to Mahmoud Abbas. It is difficult to imagine a more spineless Palestinian, who is willing and able to bend over backwards if told to do so, provided he is given some reassurances of financial aid to himself, his administration, and his bereaved people. They, after all, are being held hostage inside the fenced-in cantons of what is left of the ‘West Bank’  – after uncountable illegal infringements on the Palestinian territories by the Israelis.

It should perhaps be stressed here again, that the vast majority of these illegal land grabs have been taking place during the various phases of ‘negotiations’ since the Oslo accords, just to illustrate once more how ineffective the whole endeavor of ‘peace-talks’ has been.

 

Israel’s PR-dip

There has rarely been a time in history when Israel has been losing as much credit with the world community as it has in this past year. Despite its all-encompassing influence on Western media, its economic advantages, its consolidated guarantee of a steady flow of tax-payers’ money from a variety of Western countries, its preferential treatment when it comes to overlooking human rights violations, and its undeserved qualification as ‘island of democracy in the Middle East’, Israel has been losing public sympathy rapidly. It is however unlikely that this ‘PR-dip’ deserves to be qualified as an Israeli ‘mistake’, if one is familiar with the zionist modus operandi.

The Israelis are clearly acting out of arrogance, believing they know exactly what they are able to get away with under the current circumstances. They ‘tested the water’ during their massive onslaught on Gaza almost two years ago, and found out that the world community is perfectly capable of sitting back in silence, even when faced with war crimes against the Palestinians that can be followed on live TV through satellite networks. They count on the Western public viewing the Palestinians either as the ‘eternal victims’ whom it is best to ignore, or the ‘eternal villains’ that should be demonized even if their women and children are being slaughtered on live television.

They believe in the success of the psychological stranglehold on the majority of the populations of the West that emanates from the ‘War on Terror’ dogma, and they drool at the successful waves of Islamophobia that they have been fueling through loyalist politicians in Western democracies. In fact, they have done this so successfully that these Arab- and Muslim-hating demagogues have come to dominate the political scenes of even countries like the Netherlands and Sweden, previously world-renowned for their cultures of racial and ideological tolerance.

 

Snubbing the USA

When it comes to Obama, it is absolutely clear from the Netanyahu-administration’s attitude that the Israelis couldn’t care less if this administration would fail horrendously. They are well aware that this would not cost them even a dollar-cent in terms of economical assistance, let alone any political or military support. They are very conscious of the fact that any seriously ‘wrong’ move by Obama would mean that he would risk all of his political clout in the Jewish-dominated political scene in Washington, possibly leading to impeachment and replacement if necessary.

Furthermore, the political climate in the Knesset, despite (or perhaps thanks to?) the introduction of new racist laws has barely shown any serious opposition to Netanyahu’s style in handling issues of building in illegally occupied Arab East Jerusalem, his protectionism towards the ongoing violence perpetrated by psychotically violent Israeli settlers, his war-rhetoric towards Iran, and his staunch support for the actions of the Israeli army aboard the Mavi Marmara earlier this year.

Summarizing the above, it becomes clear that at least from the Israeli point of view, there already is a fixed outcome regardless of whether talks with the Palestinians are held or not. When judging the situation with a zionist yardstick, there really is nothing to negotiate about – just a lot to pretend to be willing to negotiate about. In one of my previous articles (Proximity Talks: the continuing story of the pie in the sky) on the Palestine Think Tank, the words of Moshe Ya’alon were quoted (see under paragraph:’The Israelis’).

It is advisable to read that, since it will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that to the Israelis, the peace talks are nothing but a charade that serves to buy them time to be able to continue their colonization and de-Arabization projects on occupied Palestinian land. To illustrate this, I will repeat one of the Ya’alon quotes here:

“I say that time works for those who make use of it. The founders of Zionism knew how to make use of time, and we in the government know how to make use of time … So we have to make use of time in order to keep on building.“

 

Pacifism or cowardice?

This, of course, is nothing new to those who are accustomed to advocating the rights and the liberation of the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, it should serve as an eye-opener to those who consider themselves ‘smart’ enough to be able to enter into this dirty political game, expecting to emerge with anything of use for the Palestinian people.

In fact, this has already proven to be a fallacious strategy. How many more Abbas-style failures do those who are working with him need, to realize that he is leading them and his entire people straight towards a gruesome abyss? The inevitable failure of his ‘depend on the Americans’ strategy is on its way, and Abbas will likely soon find himself confronted with one of two choices.

The first one of these two – knowing Abbas – is one he would consider to be an absolute nightmare: a popular revolt against the occupier as a response to the failure of the ‘peace process’ . The word ‘Intifada’ is one of the most hated words in his vocabulary. Judging by his repeated statements on this issue, it may be concluded that there is almost nothing that Abu Mazen dreads or hates more than the chaos and anger of a Palestinian uprising. In fact, fundamentalist pacifists all around the world should have long embraced this man as one of their most favored heroes, because he hates violence (even in self-defense) so passionately that the remainder of Palestinians are continuously haunted by the fear that he might be pressured into the wildest concessions on the Palestinian cause, in the face of the threat of violence.

Do not mistake this for a compliment on my part towards Mahmoud Abbas. Regardless of the fact that it is highly dubious that the proper person to lead the Palestinian people through these difficult years should be a die-hard pacifist, we have to realize that there is the strong pacifism of courage, made famous by people like Mahatma Gandhi, and the weak pacifism of cowardice. One may defend pacifism, I will leave that to everyone’s personal taste and convictions, but can lack of courage be defended, if it is found in the person who is said to represent the oppressed and occupied Palestinian people on the center stage of the world of politics?

I emphasize this, because the other one of these two choices – declaring the Palestinian state in the United Nations – would also require courage. This is exactly why we have reason to worry about whether Abu Mazen will dare to embrace it. But if he wishes to erase his failed efforts from history, his failure to keep the Palestinians united, his failure to bring anything of permanent worth to his people, his failure to gain the hearts (which is vastly different from controlling their financial security) of those living under his authority – then he will have to have the courage to declare the independence of the Palestinian state in the United Nations, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The simple reason for this, is that this is the only remaining diplomatic strategy left that would pose a serious challenge to Israel. All other diplomatic efforts have long proven to lead only to utter failure.

 

The right of return

One important thing still needs to be said when dealing with the two-states issue. Mahmoud Abbas has no mandate whatsoever to negotiate away the right of return of the Palestinian people. He was not elected to be President of Palestine to start with, not even by the people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, let alone by those people whose rights he is threatening to sacrifice, namely the millions of Palestinian refugees worldwide.

What is the need to bring the right of return into the equation, or at least strongly hint at it by speaking about relinquishing ‘historic demands’? If this is really what he means, this is serious indeed. Someone who thinks this way cannot even be trusted with selling a bag of potatoes; not even the most inexperienced of traders or negotiators would put himself in the desperate position of undermining his own position before negotiations have even started.

 

A state, before it is too late

You are possibly wondering, why hasn’t a state been declared a long time ago, and presented to the United Nations for recognition? If you are, then you should also ask yourself: how big are the chances of Washington’s support for such an effort? If you consider this, you will be thinking along the line of reasoning of Mahmoud Abbas, and you will understand where his reluctance has been coming from.

But the world is not only Washington. It is a major miscalculation to believe that anything that is not sanctioned by the Americans is worthless in this world. The unipolar world that the USA dreamed about after the demise of the Soviet Empire, is fading rapidly due to the emergence of new economical and political giants in the world, who do not have the same blind loyalty to Israel as the American governments of the past decades.

Indeed, it requires courage to defy the very power that guarantees the financial security of the governmental apparatus that controls the Palestinian people living in the West Bank. It is the type of courage that one needs to have, to deserve to be seen as a leader by the Palestinians. There is definitely a way for Abbas to challenge the present status quo, and prove that he does have some degree of courage, and some degree of vision. The declaration of an independent state of Palestine would not only ruin the Israeli political ‘peace talks’ game of cat-and-mouse, it might indeed even prove to be a genuine diplomatic nightmare for them.

But if there was ever a time when this would have any chance of success, the time is now. If anything is to be gained from the disastrous diplomatic Palestinian “two state” adventure, this is even the only chance to do so. Mahmoud Abbas, don’t wait, declare the state, or just bury the whole two-state solution altogether. But stay away from the right of return: no one gave you any authority over this issue. It is an inalienable right of the people, that they will never relinquish.