Palestinian Unilateralism

Caroline Glick reflects on the upcoming effort by the PA to create a separate state through a UN vote and what would be a very interesting Israeli response:

Our World: The Left's Faustian bargain

The Palestinians’ decision to place the issue of establishing a Palestinian state before the United Nations for a vote next month repudiates the principles of the 1993 Oslo peace framework, through which the Palestinian Authority was formed out of the PLO. The Oslo framework dictated that the final status of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem would be determined through direct negotiations between the PLO and Israel.

This is a very significant point which cannot be ignored. If the PA violates the Oslo Agreements then it should be discontinued completely by both parties. It makes no sense to recognize certain (convenient) parts of the agreement while ignoring others.

The following points must be recognized as well:

While brazen, the Palestinians’ UN gambit is not the first time Israel has been confronted with unequivocal proof that the Palestinians have been operating in bad faith. From the outset, PLO leaders from Yasser Arafat down have made statements and taken actions that have demonstrated that from the PLO’s perspective, the entire “two-state paradigm” of peacemaking upon which the Oslo process is predicated was nothing more than a ploy.

For instance, after coming under heavy pressure from then-opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, in early 1996, then-prime minister Shimon Peres was forced to ask Arafat to convene the PLO’s governing council in order to cancel the PLO Charter.

The charter repeatedly calls for Israel’s destruction.

Despite Clinton’s presence, the charter was never abrogated or even amended.

It isn't any different from the main stumbling block to having a peace agreement today - simply put, the PA refuses to acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist.

As usual, the entire article is worth reading. She closes on something prophecy watchers have been following for quite a while: the growing worldwide persecution:

In leftist activist circles, this trend of joining the Palestinians in rejecting Israel’s right to exist has led to foreign funded local NGOs and activist networks instigating domestic and international campaigns to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

On university campuses, expressions of Zionism and patriotism are increasingly demonized as racist or insensitive. For instance, at its recent graduation ceremony, Haifa University decided not to sing “Hatikva” out of concern for the feelings of the university’s Arab students.

And finally, we see an interesting idea on how Israel may deal with the PA efforts to divert the Oslo Agreement and proceed directly to the UN:

Recently several leading politicians have argued that Israel should respond to the PLO’s UN initiative by abrogating its commitment to the Oslo peace accords and applying Israeli law to Judea and Samaria. This is certainly a reasonable response to the Palestinians’ clear bad faith.

Far more difficult than responding to that bad faith, however, is conceiving and implementing a strategy for contending with the Left’s decision to side with the Palestinians against its own country’s right to exist.

Either way, the PA plans to proceed directly to the UN while bypassing any negotiations with Israel, is going to lead to some interesting and potentially "game-changing" future events. The possibility for violence and riots has already been voiced as a concern and there is growing unease as the September date approaches.

We'll have to see what happens in September - and as usual remember to pray for peace in Jerusalem.