Abbas to appeal to UN for PA "independent state"

I'm beginning to believe, for the first time, that this could actually happen.

Abbas eyes UN appeal for independent state as peace talks fail

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will consult with leaders of his Fatah faction over the contingency program, which could involve bypassing the U.S.-sponsored peace process to seek statehood through the United Nations, the Palestinian Liberation Organization official said.

There has been widespread speculation that Abbas is considering an appeal to the UN for recognition of an independent Palestine ever since direct talks collapsed.

Sunday's comments could now be a sign that the Palestinian leadership sees the UN track as an increasingly realistic option, as U.S. attempts to break the deadlock falter.

And once again, Jerusalem comes into view:

Israel has so far balked at the Palestinian and U.S. line that a new freeze, unlike the last one, must include East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1980 but Palestinians claim as their future capital.

Abbas has vowed not to return to the table unless settlement building is halted on all territory beyond the Green Line – Israel's pre-1967 border and the likely basis for a Palestinian appeal to the UN.

The idea that the UN would mandate the borders of a sovereign nation, in peacetime, would be an amazing development.

This article ties into the following article (well, a little), in terms of the minimization of Israel and the cavalier manner in which they are treated. In this case, its a matter of Holocaust denial:

The Holocaust Denial/Minimization Industry Attacks Us All

This is for Norman Finkelstein and by extension everyone who applauds him at his events.

Finkelstein would have everyone that attend his rallies believe that the state of Israel is a modern colonial invention fueled by Holocaust guilt, rather than the truth which is the exact reverse - that the Holocaust was a disaster fueled by a lack of an independent Jewish homeland.

But no, that isn't it either. The number I want to discuss is "43334."

"43334" is the tattoo on my grandmother received courtesy of the real "Holocaust Industry" - that of the Nazi's Final Solution for her, me and every other "undesirable," whether we lived during the 1940's or are descended from someone who did.

Was she lying about how she got that number? Did she fake the anxiety she felt every time a dog barked because it reminded her of German Shepherds the Nazis used? Was she in on some global conspiracy when she was emotionally unavailable for her children?

What about my grandfather? Did he invent stories about his first wife, infant daughter, mother, father, three of his four brothers and countless others he knew, that disappeared into the flames of Birkenau? Was he lying when he would talk about being nearly starved to death and beaten within an inch of his life? Was he plotting a Zionist conspiracy when he would often wake up in the middle of the night and jump out of bed in terror, forced back in time during yet another terrible Holocaust flashback?

This isn't an issue of questioning his right to criticize Israel - although a rational person would have to question why in order to criticize governmental policy someone would have to attack not the government but rather the historical, documented past itself.

Or maybe it isn't so irrational. Orwell did teach us after all that "he who controls the past, controls the future." By "vaporizing" memories, by converting the victims of the Holocaust into "unpersons," Finkelstein makes it easier for his fans to not deal with reality. This frees them to practice the kind of cognitive dissonance necessary for an American university student to support the actions of totalitarian movements like Hamas, Hizballah and others who have sworn to erase a population of six million Jews.

The fact that students gleefully welcome this distortion of history as "scholarly" is a disgrace not only to the memories of Holocaust victims but also to legitimate historians everywhere.

Amen.