INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY MAKES POWERFUL STATEMENT
The
Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, center, was congratulated
by Turkey’s
foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.
(Photo courtesy of NY Times)
(Friday November 30, 2012, New
York, NY) Exactly 65 years after the day
in 1947 that the United Nations voted for the “Partition Plan”, formally known
as United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181: "Plan of Partition with
Economic Union" which was intended to release the region known as “The
Holy Land” or “Palestine” from the British Mandate that had overseen
(effectively governed) the region since the League of Nations adopted the
Balfour Declaration that was implemented in 1923, the UN General Assembly
(UNGA) voted to officially recognize the State of Palestine. While many regard
this as nothing more than a “meaningless, symbolic gesture”, it has a far more
profound significance.
Since the time of the initial
British Mandate in 1917, neither the Jewish or Palestinian people were pleased
with the arrangement and, as the community of sovereign nations has witnessed time
and time again, the concept of a “Two State Solution”, one Palestinian, the
other Israeli, has remained just that - a concept, a painfully elusive concept
that has taken an unknown number of lives, kept the entire Middle East region
captive to the perpetual Arab/Israeli conflict in Israel; fomented
violence, terrorism, and created a seemingly intractable scenario with Israel
keeping the Palestinians under iron-fisted oppression and, arguably “occupation”
for generations. Whether yesterday’s
historic vote is just a symbolic gesture or a real, concrete “first step”
towards an ultimate mutually agreeable solution remains to be seen.
That this vote occurred so
soon after the latest military engagement between the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) and the militant faction, Hamas, who launched long range missiles from
their base in The Gaza Strip into Israeli cities, is no coincidence. That it transpired on the annually observed International
Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is just that – a coincidence. It appears that this most recent flare up and
violent exchange between IDF and Hamas was the proverbial “tipping point” that
prompted the UNGA action.
LAWS ARE LAWS: PROOF POSITIVE YESTERDAY
Before the existence of any
laws made by man there existed a set of natural phenomenon, as immutable and
pure as life itself. It took thousands
of years of observation, pondering, calculating and intense study and
experimentation until some of these phenomenon could be codified in a body of
laws. The Laws of Nature contain within
them the Laws of Physics and Thermodynamics.
Some of the basic Laws of
Physics are familiar. Those simple statements
we may have encountered in a high school science class that inform govern the
mechanics and machinations of the known universe from the galactic scale to the
sub atomic realm. Sir Isaac Newton
discovered the mathematical symmetry that is requisite of all physical laws such as, “An object that is at rest will stay
at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it” and “An object that is in
motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.” Since the days of Newton a body of laws have
been amassed that explain physical phenomenon such as motion, speed, velocity,
entropy, energy and a host of related natural activity.
Man began to create, implement
and enforce laws of his own construct since the dawn of civilized
societies. There were laws of religion
that varied from tribe to tribe and lead to the development of organized
religions. Laws governing society,
trade, banking, civil governance and criminality arose as man flourished. The old Latin document, The Magna Carta,
written in 1215, remains the bedrock of civil and criminal law in many western
nations to this day.
Laws begot more laws; as societies
became increasingly sophisticated and complex still more laws were more written
and implemented. While the Laws of
Nature had always existed awaiting discovery, other laws were crafted out of
ambiguous and often dubious whims of those in authority. Some of the recently defined “laws” of Mans
creation are informal but ring so true in our lives that we have elevated them
into certainty. Murphy’s Law is an
example as is the Law of Unintended Consequences. It appears whether one accepts that as
truisms, one of the Laws of Unintended Consequences was proven in the cavernous
UNGA chamber yesterday and Israel was its victim.
In a disturbingly cyclical
pattern Israel has found itself unleashing the full might and fury of those it
occupies. A few crude missiles fired
into Israel from Lebanon, The West Bank or Gaza, and hundreds of retaliatory
airstrikes from the mighty Israeli Air Force reduce block after block of
Palestinian homes and shops to smoldering rubble usually, if not always,
claiming the lives of unknown innocent lives of Palestinian men, women,
children the elderly and infirm. The
brutal disproportionality of the “Israeli response” is so obvious and grossly
inconsistent with International Law that it appears, finally, the world
community has mustered the resolve to make a loud and clear statement, “Enough.” For Israel the Law of Unintended Consequences
has boomeranged home.
THE WORN AND FLIMSY ISRAELI TRUMP CARD
Israel is unaccustomed to such
a strong rebuke. They have operated with
callous, malicious impunity outside the confines of International Law as the
ungrateful beneficiary of the largess, sympathy and inexplicably unshakable
allegiance of the United States. No
matter the cause or atrocity, despite all the subsequent UN resolutions passed
since Resolution 181, Israel has existed comfortably behind the protection and influence
of the United States. And as every
country, politician , world leader, head of state, observer, journalist or
intellectual has painfully learned, to cross Israel, to in any way, shape or
form criticize the Israeli governments and practices is to not only invite
strong often ugly retaliation but also to automatically be branded as “Anti-Semitic.” The unreasonable, vociferous almost
pathological reaction by each and every Israeli Administration is finally
becoming apparent for its transparency, disingenuousness, and moral
inconsistency.
There is a glaring morbid
irony inherent in the Israeli policies and practices towards the Palestinians for
the last 65 years. One could reasonably think
that a people that have themselves endured atrocities and genocide on a massive
scale would be the most sensitive to the plight of other beleaguered
people. There is no denying that the
Jewish people did face virtual extinction during the reign of the Nazi regime
from 1939 until the end of World War II in Europe in 1945. The “Holocaust” remains one of the darkest
chapters of pure evil in the annals of history.
Having been the innocent victims of an almost demonically inspired “Final
Solution” to eradicate them from the lands within Hitler’s maniacal reach, does
not give them license now to occupy, oppress, and hold hostage an equally
beleaguered People. To constantly invoke
their tragic history as justification for their aggressive apartheid policies
not only diminishes their own painful past but has become irrelevant to the
issues that demand resolutions today.
The Jewish state and the Zionist Movement have done more to exploit
their own past than any other religion and people.
Israel has used the brutal
episodes in Jewish history as the rationale, the actual reason for their behavior. Yes, other Middle East countries have, at one
time or another, gone to war with Israel, many deny her right to exist to this
day. But, as the years have melded into
decades and generations of Palestinians have grown up in deplorable conditions,
Israel has become a formidable military power with a nuclear capability which
they adamantly refuse to admit to. They
are no longer in any danger of “extinction”; never again will a country of
coalition of hostile neighbors decide to square off against the highly trained,
superiorly armed IDF. So pulling out the
tattered and torn trump card of the Holocaust is a bogus ploy that most Jews
should find offensive if not insulting and demeaning to the relatives they lost
to the horrors of notorious places such as Dachau, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald,
and all the other hideous facilities built and operated by the Nazi’s at which
they could achieve their diabolical aim.
TIME WILL TELL
The world will watch and wait
anxiously to see what happens next in that hotly contested, ancient land so
infused with history, religions, and far too much spilled blood. Early indications are that Israel will
continue to be belligerently petulant and, as a result of yesterday’s UNGA vote
quickly approved the expansion of “settlements” in the West Bank. Not only is this far removed from any sign of
what the community of nations proclaimed loudly and clearly, but also
demonstrates their recalcitrance towards conciliation and desire to work in furtherance
of their oft stated but never achieved goal of a “Two State Solution.”
But, the world is watching
perhaps as never before. Israel is
poised at a junction although she may fail to realize this new harsh fact. She has choices to make that transcend her
domestic politics, shine a new high wattage light on her actions, and place the
onus squarely on the shoulders of her leaders.
Perhaps the world will be
relieved and pleasantly surprised when Israel matures under the scrutiny of the
wider world and takes earnest, tangible efforts in the rocky direction of the
long sought Two State Solution. The world
can only watch and pray. The Palestinians
can celebrate again tonight buoyed by the fact that finally the United Nations
has heard their anguished cries. But,
time will tell.
TAGS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTE RECOGNIZING PALESTINE,
UNGA RESOLUTION 181, TWO STATE SOLUTION, SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIANS, ISRAELI
OPPRESSION, GAZA STRIP, WEST BANK, DISPROPORTIONAL IDF RESPONSE
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