UN general assembly voted massively in favor of Palestinian statehood. 138 for, 41 abstentions, nine against. On the 65th anniversary of the UN partitioning of Britain-ruled Mandate Palestine into two zones, Jewish and Arab. Which was refused then by Arab countries and led to the 1948 war, statehood for Israel, and tremendous losses for the Palestinian people. This UN decision is an affirmation of the Palestinians’ inalienable right to self-determination.
What now? Palestine becomes a “non-member observer state,” like the Vatican. Nothing changes on the ground, no one is abused about that, least of all in the West Bank or Gaza. Palestine could join such international bodies as the International Criminal Court, though this is actively discouraged by the US, Britain, and more quietly by some Europeans. More importantly, the Palestinian Authority gets some temporary political luster from the action and will not disappear from the scene as it might have, now that the much more radical Hamas has claimed political success in its latest confrontation with Israel.
Israel claims that this is a step backwards, because according to its vulgate a Palestinian state can come into being only through direct negotiations. True enough in theory, beginning with Oslo after 93. But Rabin was murdered by an opponent of Oslo. The Likud government of Israel, in its daily tactics, has been opposed to Oslo and the ideas behind it since 1996. Any sort of negotiation died in 2010. Helped by the US. Both the US and Israel are quick at retaliating against the Palestinian authority when it doesn’t go along with the do-nothing program.
US Secretary of State Clinton regrettably regretted the move as “unfortunate and counterproductive” and is quoted as saying:
Only through direct negotiations between the parties can the Palestinians and Israelis achieve the peace that both deserve: two states for two people, with a sovereign, viable and independent Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel.
What has the US done lately to steer the two sides back to this reasonable stage? And regarding her polished phrase, “Jewish and democratic Israel,” yes, of course, democratic Israel is a home for Jews, but doesn’t it also have many Palestinian citizens and many other non-Jews?