Moshe Dann: Palestinians taking their cues from Israeli leaders, American president
[The author, a former assistant professor of History (CUNY) is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem]
Declarations of virtual Palestinian statehood by asking the UN and international community for diplomatic recognition are a blunt way of avoiding the requirements for statehood. According to the Montevideo Convention this includes: "(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other state … The primary interest of states is the conservation of peace."
Recent declarations by Arab Palestinian leaders, however, are not new; Palestinian statehood was implied when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Included in various "peace plans" since 1967 and more recently in the "Road Map," it has become a sacred fetish of the international community.
It was confirmed when Israel withdrew from Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, and from Gaza. Israeli political leaders gave their tacit approval to such a state when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton (in 2000) and then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush (in 2007) offered the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank, plus 3% of Israeli territory, most of eastern Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the "right of return" (to Israel) to a significant number of Arab Palestinians and their descendents currently living in UNRWA refugee camps. Palestinian leaders rejected the offer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar offer in 2009, breaking a long-standing Likud position and electoral promises.
It wasn't enough, because Arab Palestinian leaders demanded – for starters – all of the territory acquired by Israel in 1967. It wasn't enough because they demanded that the "right of return" be available to all Arabs and their descendents who claim to be displaced "refugees" – a population which now is nearly equal to the number of Jews in Israel.
It wasn't enough because, according to Arabs, the "occupation of Arab land" did not begin in 1967, but in 1948 – the "Nakba" (catastrophe) – when the State of Israel was established. “Palestinian sovereignty” begins but does not end with the 1949 ceasefire (armistice) lines. It is grounded in the elimination of "the Zionist entity" – all of it.
“Palestinian sovereignty," therefore, is the raison d'etre of all Palestinian terrorist groups, including their political representatives...
Read entire article at Ynet
Declarations of virtual Palestinian statehood by asking the UN and international community for diplomatic recognition are a blunt way of avoiding the requirements for statehood. According to the Montevideo Convention this includes: "(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other state … The primary interest of states is the conservation of peace."
Recent declarations by Arab Palestinian leaders, however, are not new; Palestinian statehood was implied when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Included in various "peace plans" since 1967 and more recently in the "Road Map," it has become a sacred fetish of the international community.
It was confirmed when Israel withdrew from Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, and from Gaza. Israeli political leaders gave their tacit approval to such a state when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton (in 2000) and then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush (in 2007) offered the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank, plus 3% of Israeli territory, most of eastern Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the "right of return" (to Israel) to a significant number of Arab Palestinians and their descendents currently living in UNRWA refugee camps. Palestinian leaders rejected the offer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar offer in 2009, breaking a long-standing Likud position and electoral promises.
It wasn't enough, because Arab Palestinian leaders demanded – for starters – all of the territory acquired by Israel in 1967. It wasn't enough because they demanded that the "right of return" be available to all Arabs and their descendents who claim to be displaced "refugees" – a population which now is nearly equal to the number of Jews in Israel.
It wasn't enough because, according to Arabs, the "occupation of Arab land" did not begin in 1967, but in 1948 – the "Nakba" (catastrophe) – when the State of Israel was established. “Palestinian sovereignty” begins but does not end with the 1949 ceasefire (armistice) lines. It is grounded in the elimination of "the Zionist entity" – all of it.
“Palestinian sovereignty," therefore, is the raison d'etre of all Palestinian terrorist groups, including their political representatives...