Real meaning of UN vote
Op-ed: By upgrading PA's status, UN disregarded its own charter and proved itself unfit to fairly judge Israel
Since the reality of the UN's overwhelming vote against Israel has had a little time to settle, it seems worthwhile to take a look at some serious ramifications of the decision.
Consider the motivation for Mahmoud Abbas bringing the matter to the UN. It's no secret direct negotiations between the PA and Israel have failed to produce a breakthrough. While several issues have made this difficult to achieve, there is one which rises above all of them. It's not Israel's willingness to accept a Palestinian state. On the contrary, it's the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the Jewish state of Israel - this in spite of the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his predecessors have all agreed to recognize a Palestinian state.
During the Camp David ll negotiations for example, PM Barak offered 97% of Judea and Samaria, the Christian and Muslim sections of the Old City, control of the Temple Mount and the Gaza Strip all for a Palestinian state. Yasser Arafat rejected the offer. President Clinton was furious with Arafat, indicating the "deal was so good he couldn't believe anyone would turn it down." He blamed Arafat for the collapse of the summit and subsequently lost confidence in him.
Today Mahmoud Abbas has stated on numerous occasions he will never accept a Jewish state of Israel. Since he knows any peace agreement between the PA and Israel which comes as a result of direct negotiations between the two sides will require he accept Israel as a Jewish state, he cannot achieve his objective of a Palestinian state by taking this path. Thus he turned to the UN, which has proven itself to be biased against Israel for years, having passed no less than 33 resolutions critical of Israel since 2006. No other country has had more than one resolution passed against it.
Moreover, Israel is the only country on the permanent agenda of the UN Human Rights Council in spite of atrocities having been committed in numerous other countries.
With recognition of non-member status Abbas achieves worldwide legitimacy of Palestine as a state, without making a single concession to Israel or its supporters. This is a huge diplomatic victory for him and Palestinian status, which not coincidently came on the anniversary of the date in 1947 the UN approved the resolution which created the original two-state solution. A resolution, which the Arab world rejected and instead chose to wage war against the new Jewish state. Has anyone reminded the Arabs or the UN about this?
Flush with a victory smile, Abbas now wants to resume direct negotiations using the just passed resolution which requires Israel to return to pre-1967 borders to bolster his position. With de-facto statehood he may even attempt to bring charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Palestine's recognition is also tantamount to the UN accepting several other disturbing elements on the part of the Palestinians. For example, it's well known that on several occasions Abbas has named public places after 'martyred' terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians. The most recent was in July when he named a Palestinian summer camp for children after Dalal Mughrabi, who lead a terrorist attack on an Israeli bus in 1978 which killed 37 civilians. Action such as this by Abbas can only be described as the glorification of murder.
Another issue is the official emblem of the Fatah party of which he is head, includes a map of Israel which is entirely one color - green, the official color of Islam. The map makes no distinction between Israel and borders of a proposed Palestinian state. In other words, Israel doesn't exist, only one state of Palestine does, which covers the entire area of Israel.
More disturbing is the Fatah party's charter. Some quotes include:
Article 12: "Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence."
Article 17: "Armed public revolution is the inevitable method of liberating Palestine."
Article 19: "…..this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.
These quotes confirm the PA and Abbas' Fatah party reject peaceful co-existence with the Jewish state of Israel. In fact, they reflect an avowed commitment to the destruction of the state of Israel, which the UN is certainly aware of.
Thus, by approving Palestine as a permanent observer, the UN is doing much more than legitimizing its status. They are welcoming an official permanent observer which is bound by a charter requiring the destruction of a member nation to sit among the General Assembly. Since the very nature of the UN is supposed to foster peace among the nations of the world, their action is not only reprehensible, it's blatantly hypocritical.
Allowing those committed to Israel's destruction through armed revolution to sit in the same assembly with the Jewish state is an insult to Israel and tantamount to acquiescence with terrorism. By doing so the UN has disregarded its own charter, and proven itself unfit to fairly judge the Jewish state.
I suggest the letters "UN" now stand for "Unfair Nations."
Dan Calic is a writer, historian and speaker. See additional articles on his Facebook page.
