The Palestinians’ illegitimate UN gambit
By RICK PERRY The Jerusalem Post 09/15/2011 21:07
It was a mistake President Obama to distance himself from Israel and seek
engagement with the hostile regimes in Syria and Iran.
The historic friendship between the United States and Israel stretches from
the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 to the present day. Our nations
have developed vital economic and security relationships in an alliance
based on shared democratic principles, deep cultural ties and common
strategic interests. Historian T.R. Fehrenbach once observed that my home
state of Texas and Israel share the experience of “civilized men and women
thrown into new and harsh conditions, beset by enemies.”
Surrounded by unfriendly neighbors and terror organizations that aim to
destroy it, life has never been easy for Israel. Today, the challenges are
mounting. The Jewish state faces growing hostility from Turkey. Its three
decade-old peace with Egypt hangs by a thread. Iran pursues nuclear weapons
its leaders vow to use to annihilate Israel. Terrorist attacks on Israeli
civilians from Hezbollah and Hamas continue.
And now, the Palestinian leadership is intent on trashing the possibility of
a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Israel in favor of unilateral
recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations.
The Palestinian plan to win that one-sided endorsement from the UN this
month in New York threatens Israel and insults the United States. The US and
UN have long supported the idea that Israel and its neighbors should make
peace through direct negotiations.
The Palestinian leadership has dealt directly with Israel since 1993, but
has refused to do so since March 2010. They seem to prefer theatrics in New
York to the hard work of negotiation and compromise that peace will require.
Unfortunate errors by the Obama administration have encouraged the
Palestinians to take steps backward away from peace. It was a mistake to
inject an Israeli construction freeze, including in Jerusalem, as an
unprecedented precondition for talks. Indeed, the Palestinian leadership had
been negotiating with Israel for years, notwithstanding settlement activity.
When the Obama administration demanded a settlement freeze, it led to a
freeze in Palestinian negotiations.
It was a mistake to agree to the Palestinians’ demand for indirect
negotiations conducted through the United States. And it was an even greater
mistake for President Obama to distance himself from Israel and seek
engagement with the hostile regimes in Syria and Iran.
Palestinian leaders have perceived this as a weakening of relations between
Israel and the United States, and are trying to exploit it. In refusing to
deal with the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and taking this
destabilizing action in the UN, the Palestinians are signaling that they
have no interest in a two-state solution. The Palestinian leadership’s
insistence on the so-called “right of return” of descendants of Palestinian
refugees to Israel’s sovereign territory, thereby making Jews an ethnic
minority in their own state, is a disturbing sign that the ultimate
Palestinian “solution” remains the destruction of the Jewish state.
The United States – and the United Nations – should do everything possible
to discourage the Palestinian leadership from pursuing its current course.
The circumvention of serious negotiations by PA President Mahmoud Abbas
demonstrates a basic failure of leadership and a betrayal of the true
interests of the Palestinian people. The United States should oppose this
measure by using our veto in the Security Council, as President Obama has
pledged, and by doing everything we can to weaken support for the unilateral
declaration of Palestinian statehood in the General Assembly, even at this
late date.
The United States must affirm that the precondition for any properly
negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is the
formal recognition of the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state behind
secure borders.
Since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, the US has provided more than $4
billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority. This year alone the Obama
administration is seeking to secure $550 million in funding for
Palestinians.
The United States has an interest in the development of Palestinian civil
society and institutions.
We should encourage Palestinians who are more interested in building a
prosperous future than in fueling the grievances of the past. Our aid is,
and must remain, predicated on the commitment of the Palestinian leadership
to engage honestly and directly with the Israelis in negotiating a peace
settlement.
Their threatened unilateral action in the United Nations, combined with
their declared intention to establish a unity government with the terrorist
group Hamas, signals a failure to abide by this commitment.
The United States must not condone and legitimize through our assistance a
regime whose actions are in direct opposition to a peace agreement with our
ally Israel, and in direct opposition to our own vital interests.
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The author is the governor of Texas.
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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il
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