The Palestinian Authority
Although at the present time the Palestinian Authority and its parent body, Fatah, express the determination to have no further truck with Israel, there was a time when it suited their purpose to express in public their willingness to work in tandem with Israel to achieve a lasting peace agreement. It played well to the international community, pleased to note that the PA was playing nicely and agreeing to be reasonable.This was the reasonable side of accommodation, reaching out to the 'occupiers' to attempt to forge an agreement whereby each side would agree to scale back their expectations and accept some limitations on their aspirations in favour of accommodating the needs of the other side which had its own aspirations.
The idea being that at long last, although originally both the Palestinians and the Jews were offered a split geography, initially rejected by the Arabs, it would now become reality.
The birth and presence of Hamas whose mission statement would not be denied, to destroy the State of Israel so Palestinians could once again occupy land they deemed was rightfully theirs did change the equation somewhat, but not entirely. Since the PLO under Yasser Arafat practised the same kind of end-game pursuit that Hamas does now.
When Arafat established his headquarters at Ramallah and Israel and the PLO worked out a strategy whereby they would work together to establish a state infrastructure, and Israel would train PLO police, it appeared as though both sides were finally heading toward a workable solution. Until the first Intifada, that is. And when Mahmoud Abbas inherited the PA, it seemed a solution would finally be found.
Illusionary, since Abbas, more covertly but just as determinedly, prepared the Palestinians for continued incitement against Israeli legitimacy on land that the PA presented in their own maps and taught to schoolchildren, that comprised Palestinian occupancy, where Israel was nowhere to be seen. The PA has been extraordinarily clever in its public relations geared toward the West portraying itself as a victim, Israel as the aggressor.
Israel's 'occupation', a result of being forced to defend itself from continued and continuous attacks by Palestinians whom the PA reveres publicly as 'martyrs', is never referenced by those in the West who take PA claims at face value, preferring to view Israel as an aggressive 'occupier'. The Palestinian Authority pledged to end incitement to violence against Israel, to stop terrorism, and to negotiate for a comprehensive peace agreement that would conclude in a state of their own, all in good faith.
What they have done, in very bad faith, is continue to teach PA children that Israel and Jews are their mortal enemies, and to celebrate the accomplishments of suicide bombers with Jewish blood on their hands, as martyrs obliged to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of Palestinians. Israel, on the other hand, has continued to be vilified, even while she continues to aid the PA wherever feasible.
Billions of dollars in international aid streams into the West Bank and Gaza, weapons are supplied, and military and police training undertaken by the international community. The world's longest-reigning 'refugee' community continues to be subsidized by the United Nations. A de facto government in Gaza continues to be held unaccountable for its violent cross-border forays while Israel is subject to demands for restraint in response.
And history in the making will proceed from September 20 when the PA's Mahmoud Abbas presents his unilateral declaration of statehood to the United Nations for the General Assembly to approve in majority fashion, and the Security Council to ponder.
Labels: Palestinian Authority, Political Realities, United Nations
posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 02, 2011
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