That Palestinian State
The United Nations representatives in the Palestinian Territories are jubilantly self-congratulating. Their mission to assist the Palestinian Authority to finally establish civil authority and infrastructure as a precursor to establishing a sovereign Palestinian State has succeeded. The newly-issued United Nations report, Palestinian State-building: A Decisive Period, claims with pride that a functioning government is finally possible.The Palestinian Authority can now boast, thanks to the invaluable assistance of the United Nations and funding by the international community, that it is governmentally functional in the areas of rule of law and human rights; livelihoods; education and culture; health; social protection; and infrastructure and water. Which is a considerable advance from the inchoate state it represented under Yasser Arafat.
Who preferred to launch the first destructive Intifada rather than continue on the imperfect road to establishing a decent civil infrastructure for his nascent country. He was unable to see past his violent militant wing's intention to entirely dislodge Israel from the map of the Middle East, and retake all of what Palestinians claim to be their rightful inheritance.
A declaration through the United Nations General Assembly, supported by over 100 countries prepared to recognize a unilateral declaration of statement for the Palestinians on pre-1967-war land, would most certainly present as a problem for neighbouring Israel. Without the establishment of a firm peace agreement that would settle the problems of Jerusalem and West Bank settlements such a declaration would be fraught with tension and danger and the prospect of another war.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is prepared to proceed with a unilateral declaration of statehood approved by the United Nations. He has issued a call for the international community to fund the transition to statehood over a period of years to the tune of a total of $5-billion in investment support. Which will assist the process immeasurably. And the initiative will proceed.
This, despite that the Palestinian Authority agreed a few years back that final status would best be achieved through negotiations with Israel beforehand. Now Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, having two years ago cut off peace talks, has turned instead to gaining of international support for a PA state. Leaving Israel with the massive headache of considering the half-million Jews now living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
While The UN's Middle East envoy, Robert Serry, states that ideally it is vital yet that Israelis and Palestinians resume serious peace talks with an aim to settle all disputes, and while Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is prepared to pledge Israel to those talks, the PA's Mahmoud Abbas remains talk-shy, preferring to opt for unilateralism.
Leaving Israel in a truly untenable position.
Labels: Israel, Middle East, Peace, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 13, 2011
<< Home