Rather than do something on behalf of Middle East peace, the Obama administration has buckled, proving unwilling to confront an Israeli government set on measures that will greatly diminish the prospect of creating a Palestinian state.
As long as Likud’s principles remain uncompromising and Netanyahu holds firm to them there is little that will come of the peace process with the Palestinians.
Many of Israel’s supporters and friends are groups that advocate hatred and intolerance. Israelis need to took a good look at themselves and decide whether they want to be associated with these racist parties. Whether Israel embraces or rejects these new-found friends will say much about the character and nature of its society and the direction it decides to take with regards to its future.
Palestine now only requires a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly, or 129 votes, to be admitted as the 194th member of the United Nations. The long conflict between Israel and Palestine has shed enough blood. It is high time that the international community worked to support the peaceful future of two sovereign states.
Salam Fayyad, the western-educated economist/Prime Minister of the West Bank, has been the point man for western backed development efforts throughout Palestine. With the controversial vote on Palestinian statehood approaching and the reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas nearly complete, Fayyad may soon find himself a victim of the inconsistencies and contradictions in his national strategy.
If the U.S. genuinely cares for Israel, which I believe it really does, it should force it to decolonize now. It would be a paternal act of love. Just do it now, President Obama. And then, truly, you would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize you were awarded in Oslo.
Israel would be in a better position if it accepted the Arab Peace Plan put forward by Saudi Arabia and addressed the sixty years of UN resolutions that deal with the unilateral decision making of the Palestinian National Authority. That way Israel would benefit from normalised relations with Arab nations, which is more conducive to its national interest.
History has placed two peoples, both with legitimate claims, in competition for the same land. The brutality of the Murders at Itamar is a reminder that the conflict on the West Bank, indeed the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians in all of its aspects, should be understood as a secular, rather than a religious, event.
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