generalspeaking

Friends, Allies and Enemies - How To Tell Them Apart?

The Arab League, holding their most recent summit in Sirte, Libya, pontificate on their 'problem' with a neighbouring state which simply refuses to lose its intransigent spirit to satisfy their demands that it bow to their perceived needs and sacrifice its own real needs. Does Israel pose a threat to the existence of any of the Arab States? Does it threaten any of its neighbours with attack or nuclear bombardment?

Ah, it has offered grave insult to the supremacy of Islam within its own indisputable region. No matter its right of heritage, pre-dating Islam in the neighbourhood it has now re-settled in, re-introduced to old adversaries proving that old truism that nothing ever really does change. "It's time to face Israel. We have to have alternative plans because the situation has reached a turning point.

"The peace process has entered a new stage, perhaps the last stage. We have accepted the efforts of mediators. We have accepted an open-ended peace process. But that resulted in a loss of time and we did not achieve anything and allowed Israel to practise its policy for 20 years", lectured Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. That does sound ominously sinister.

The 'last stage' of what, precisely? Fair and open and balanced negotiations? Reversion to the Arab Peace Initiative which demands that Jerusalem be divided, that Jews be once again shut out of their most sacred religious sites, that the country welcome back with open arms Palestinians who fled the creation of the new state, and welcome along with them their 6-millions-strong descendants, equal in number to Jews in Israel?

Where then the Jewish state? Why, of course the evolution of a bi-national state, equally comprised of Jews and Arabs. Israel dissolves into Palestine, and Jews live within the Arab-majority state on sufferance. Back to the conditions that have historically existed since the banishment of Jews after the burning and sacking of the Second Temple. How impudent of the Jewish diaspora to imagine they could return to claim what was once theirs.

And Mahmoud Abbas has made it perfectly clear that, thanks entirely to the kindly encouragement of President Obama he has every right to demand Israel halt all building in Jerusalem and the West Bank as a pre-condition to 'proximity' talks. As though that might avail results, when previous lengthy direct talks with the predecessor-Israeli governments promising all that the Palestinian Authority demanded, did not bear fruition?

However, President Obama stated unequivocally that critical parts of Jerusalem are 'occupied' and what greater encouragement does the PA need, after all? If all else fails, there is always the threat of newly-dedicated violence, delivered both through the terror-jihad option and that of Arab states which have thus far withheld their troops. Normalization of relations with Arab states should Israel submit to their demands would accomplish what, exactly?

Israel does have signed peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan. This does not stop both those countries from maligning Israel, refusing to honour diplomatic ties and up-front friendly relations resulting in an exchange of common civility, one nation to another. Why, on the other hand, would Arab countries, long the enemies of a national Jewish presence in the Middle East, succumb to treating honestly and with justice with Israel when her greatest ally does not?

When Senator Barack Obama was campaigning for the presidency of the United States he spoke to the indivisibility of Jerusalem and his clear support for Israel. When Hilary Clinton was New York's Senator she was too was adamant in her support for Israel. She stated in a 2007 position paper the belief of "Israel's right to exist in safety as a Jewish state, with defensible borders and an undivided Jerusalem as its capital."

The "Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995" passed by a margin of 93 to 5 in the U.S. Senate and 347 to 37 in the U.S. House of Representatives. That very Act, which is American law states:

(1) Jerusalem should remain an undivided city.
(2) Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the state of Israel.'
(1) Each sovereign nation, under international law and custom, may designate its own capital.
(2) Since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel.
(3) The city of Jerusalem is the seat of Israel's President, Parliament, and Supreme Court, and the site of numerous government ministries and social and cultural institutions.
(4) The city of Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Judaism, and is also considered a holy city by the members of other religious faiths.
(5) From 1948-1967, Jerusalem was a divided city and Israeli citizens of all faiths as well as Jewish citizens of all states were denied access to holy sites in the area controlled by Jordan.
(6) In 1967, the city of Jerusalem was reunited during the conflict known as the Six Day War.
(7) Since 1967, Jerusalem has been a united city administered by Israel, and persons of all religious faiths have been guaranteed full access to holy sites within the city.
(8) This year marks the 28th consecutive year that Jerusalem has been administered as a unified city in which the rights of all faiths have been respected and protected.
(9) In 1990, the Congress unanimously adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 106, which declares that the Congress ``strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city."
(10) In 1992, the United States Senate and House of Representatives unanimously adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 113 of the One Hundred Second Congress to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, and reaffirming congressional sentiment that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city.

One can only suppose that when the United States under the Obama administration 'normalizes relations' with Israel, the Arab League may return the ball to the Palestinian Authority with instructions to carry on, this time with the intention of achieving realizable results which may eventually bring a two-state solution to reality.

Labels: Israel, Middle East, United States

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, March 28, 2010