21. Oct, 2010
In 1993, the PLO recognised Israel’s “right to exist in peace and security” as part of the Oslo Accords that established the Palestinian Authority (PA) and that were supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Now Israel is demanding that Palestinians additionally recognise Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people” as a condition for extending a largely fictitious moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank for a mere 60 days.
Any such recognition by the PA would be catastrophic to Palestinian rights. Since it was created, Israel has been referred to as a “Jewish state”, in the mere sense that that it has a manufactured Jewish majority within the pre-1967 borders as a result of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. It is also “Jewish” in the sense that it discriminates in favour of Jews in the economic, social and political life, has an army that is in effect a Jewish army, and allows Jews from anywhere in the world to settle on the land of expelled Palestinians, while denying the true owners of that land the right to return home.
These very discriminatory policies and practices lie at the heart of the conflict created by the Zionist project. To ask the Palestinians to recognise and accept them is to ask them to accept defeat and adopt Zionism.
Israel – and its supporters, including the US administration [and Our Deperate"Friend Alan hart, Desperate to close the Palestinian file"] - offer a very twisted logic to justify its demand. It claims that it will be the state of the Jewish people and the Palestinian state will be the state for the Palestinians.
But if Palestinians recognise an Israeli “right” to oppress and discriminate against them, the next logical step will be for Israel to “enforce” its “right” to be a “Jewish state” by getting rid of Palestinians from within its borders, which is in fact precisely what Israeli Foreign Minister proposed in his recent “population exchange” speech at the United Nations.
Accepting the Israeli demand would open the door for another wave of ethnic cleansing by Israel, but this time with Palestinian consent. This can never be allowed to happen.
The loud wave of Palestinian protests in response to Abed Rabbo’s steep descent into new humiliating political lows has forced the PA to deny his statement. But no denial was ever made of Abbas’ statements to Jewish organisations in the United States or in his recent press statement with the president of Finland, affirming that Israel can define itself any way it wants.
[Read Joseph Massad: Oslo and the end of Palestinian independence and PA is pregnant; is awaiting child . Actually a twin Bastard, and a Jewish State]
Yet even if Abbas were, despite all this, to surrender to the Israeli demand, no one should be under the illusion that Israel would be satisfied or that this would be the key to Israel fulfilling its obligations.
We can already anticipate the next Israeli demand: now that the Palestinians have recognised Israel as the state of the Jewish people, they must recognise that the land itself belongs only to the Jewish people.
In that case, Israel would be doing the Palestinians a favour to tolerate their continued presence on any part of Palestine, even in the so-called Palestinian state if it is ever established.
Abbas’ constant bets on the Israelis and Americans have failed a thousand times. He cannot keep rushing from one failure to another. He should live up to his repeated threats to step down. He should apologise to the Palestinian people for the time, the rights, the sacrifices and opportunities he has squandered over the years of his miserable and disastrous leadership. This would be the greatest service he could now do for his people.
Source: The Jordan Times
More:
Jewistan: Finally Recognizing Israel as the Jewish State
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