Palestine: European Union finally sees reality

As in the case of the PA’s refusal to resume negotiations with Israel on the future sovereignty of the West Bank without preconditions, the current threatened approach to the UN appears to have been some public relations ploy to put pressure on Israel and keep the cause of a Palestinian State in the media spotlight.

It has in fact achieved the opposite result and blown up in the PA’s face.

The PA is clearly desperate and frustrated as it unsuccessfully pursues alternative diplomatic paths to keep the “two-state” solution alive.

Negotiations have hit a brick wall as the PA refuses to change its negotiating stance of the last 16 years by even the slightest concession or admission that Israel also has claims at least as good as the PA to sovereignty in at those parts of the West Bank in which Jews currently reside.

There are a few other home truths the PA seems to have ignored in its proposed UN tour de force:

The Arabs were offered - and refused - a state by the UN in 1947 in 100 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza plus additional land in what is now Israel.

The Arabs could have created a state in 100 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza between 1948-1967 when not one Jew lived there (having all been driven out by the Arabs) and it was under complete Arab occupation and control - yet failed to do so.

The current demand that Israel now cede 100 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza in the current changed environment of the Middle East to give the PA what could have been achieved 40- 60 years ago is not going to happen.

UN Security Council resolution 242 has made it clear that the 1967 armistice lines must be replaced by secure and recognised boundaries that ensure Israel’s safety and security.

Negotiations involving PA territorial concessions to Israel in the West Bank is the only possible way forward. If the PA refuses to offer any such concessions then they can kiss goodbye to any new state being created. The opportunities existing between 1947-1967 will not be returning in 2009 or at any time thereafter.

The 500,000 Jews now living in the West Bank are legally entitled to do so by virtue of the legal rights conferred on them under the League of Nations and United Nations Charter.

The PA rejected two Israeli proposals in 2000 and 2008 that would have seen the PA receive sovereignty in 90-100 per cent of the West Bank or its territorial equivalent in area. This offer is unlikely to be renewed by the current Israeli government in the light of Israel’s invasion of Gaza in January, the subsequent Goldstone Commission Report and the continuing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah that threatens to divide the West bank and Gaza into warring fiefdoms for the hearts and minds of the Arab residents who live in both areas.
If the territorial division of the West Bank cannot be agreed upon then discussion on more difficult issues like refugees, Jerusalem, water and demilitarisation will be a complete waste of time.