Declare a
Palestinian State
Aug
11, 2006
The Middle East has exploded
into violence once more. Israel is ravaging Lebanon
with its air force, as it blasts away at factories,
bridges, homes, airports, and all sorts of other
carefully chosen “military targets”.
After each outrage, it is quick to express regret
or to deny its responsibility, but then proceeds
with “bombs away”. All in the name
of destroying an organization that they created
with their previous assault on Lebanon 24 years
ago. If all you have is a hammer, the whole world
looks like a nail, and to the Israelis, whose
only strong suit is their military, everything
seems to have a violent solution.
The Bush administration wants a “lasting
peace”, which is their code for green-lighting
more Israeli air strikes. But Bush is not wrong
in his sentiment, he just doesn’t reach
the logical conclusion. What a lasting peace in
the Middle East requires in not disarming Hezbollah
in isolation, but comprehensively settling the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute, which is the heart
of the matter. But Bush wont touch this, because
it would require the US to exercise a little tough-love
toward Israel.
So how can the Muslim world respond? What can
we all do collectively to force the situation
on the ground into real movement? Because Israel
has such overwhelming military power, it seems
that the Muslim world is powerless and must watch
helplessly as Lebanon is destroyed and the dream
of freedom for the Palestinians continues to wither.
However, true strategy requires one to play to
your own strengths rather than your weaknesses.
The Muslim world is militarily weak, but in a
diplomatic, economic, and demographic sense much
stronger. This leads to an obvious strategy. The
Palestinians should declare statehood immediately
and officially set their borders to be the Gaza
Strip and West Bank. In response, the Muslim countries
of the world should declare that they recognize
Palestine.
Once the Palestinians declare statehood, they
can issue themselves passports, birth certificates,
official maps, and all the other paraphernalia
of being a sovereign state. The Israelis wont
recognize it, but the Muslim countries certainly
can and should, as will a number of non-Muslim
states. A diplomatic offensive to push as many
countries as possible to recognize Palestine would
become the focus of international affairs. By
declaring their official borders (incidentally,
something which the Israelis have never done),
they both reassure critics of the Palestinians
that they only want a return to the 1967 borders,
and they also destroy the chance of Israel getting
its land-grab of the West Bank recognized by anyone.
By forcing a diplomatic confrontation, the Palestinians
play to their strengths. The Israelis would then
have to explain why they need to continue this
occupation of a sovereign country, whose existence
is based on UN Resolutions 181 and 1402. The Palestinians
could set up courts in Gaza to hear land claim
suits against Israeli settlements, and to undertake
various legal actions against the settlers. While
Israel’s military might would prevent the
Palestinians from actually enforcing their unilateral
acts, the Palestinians will have totally changed
the political and public opinion environment.
The question then will not be why should the Israelis
leave, but what right do they have to be there
in the first place? The whole world would see
that it is Israeli greed for settlements and the
refusal to allow Palestine to exist that are the
real impediments to peace. While the US will try
hard to stop Muslim nations from recognizing Palestine,
the overwhelming pressure of public opinion in
these countries will force their hands. Back in
2000, Arafat threatened to unilaterally declare
statehood if real progress was not made through
negotiations. Clinton talked him out of it, by
promising to push for a real negotiated deal,
and by using Barak’s threat that Israel
would annex territory unilaterally and stop negotiating
if the Palestinians took such a provocative step.
These factors no longer operate.
Bush has made no attempt to get back to final
status negotiations, and Israelis long ago decided
to grab land unilaterally and refuse to talk to
any Palestinian leader under any realistic circumstance.
So the threats that held back Arafat have come
to pass. The Palestinians have nothing to lose
and much to gain. Declare statehood now. Comments
can reach me at Nali@socal.rr.com.
