Obama Promises Abbas Everything

It has been reported in numerous sources and confirmed by a source from Obama’s transition team that Obama has promised Mahmoud Abbas a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. This has been furthered by Obama phoning Abbas earlier today and pledging to work to establish a Palestinian state as soon as possible. Where this probably seems like a small matter to promise, I doubt President elect Obama fully understands the ramifications of this promise. Perhaps a short look through recent history on this subject might set the tone for further discussion.

Settling the standoff between the Palestinians, and in turn the Arab world, and Israel has been attempted since the founding of Israel on May 15, 1948 with absolutely no real progress. In actuality, we have only created more difficulties and impediments to reaching this goal over the years. Immediately after the partitioning of the British area into two states, a Palestinian state and the Jewish state of Israel the surrounding Arab nations rejected the United Nations solution and invaded the nascent Jewish state with the intent of driving them into the sea. When this war ended in 1949, the State of Israel had taken possession of much of the contested land with Jordan taking the West Bank and Egypt taking the Gaza Strip. Jordan eventually gave citizenship to the inhabitants of the West Bank and that has been the closest the world has come to addressing this vexing problem. Egypt never did assimilate the peoples of the Gaza.

When Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, England and France allied with Israel to retake control over this essential waterway. When the time came for action, England and France held back on their planned attack on the canal leaving Israel going against Egypt alone. Israel’s attack proved successful giving Israel possession of the Sinai Peninsula. The United Nations, with the United States in the lead and without any protest from France or England, led the world insisting Israel immediately return the Sinai. Needless to say, Israel had little choice but to return the Sinai for the first time in its history.

Things were relatively calm with only rhetorical threats against Israel, mostly by Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser. The rhetoric heated up leading to the 1967 Six Day War which was spawned by Egypt and Syria massing troops on their borders with Israel. After the start of the conflict Jordan and other Arab nations joined in the conflict. When the war was brought to an end by the United Nations, Israel had taken control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Again in 1973 Israel was invaded in what is known as the Yom Kippur War. Egypt broke through in the Sinai and Syria retook the Golan Heights and moved into northern Israel before Israel deployed her reserves and reversed these gains. This war was also brought to a quick conclusion by the world powers as Israel routed the attacking armies and threatened both Damascas and Cairo. Since then Israel has reached peace accords with Egypt and Jordan. Egypt took back the Sinai Peninsula but refused to retake possession of the Gaza Strip and Jordan refused to retake possession of the West Bank, both preferring to leave these territories as a constant problem for Israel. Syria never has reached a peace with Israel thus leaving the Golan in Israeli possession. That brings us to the ongoing problem of what to do with the “Occupied Territories”.

Over the ensuing years there have been countless negotiations and even more terror attacks all leading to much misery and bloodshed. Probably the best known initiatives have been the ill fated Oslo Accords, President Clinton’s Wye River negotiations which ended with Yasser Arafat walking out after refusing every offer, and the latest, President Bush and his Road Map and the Annapolis Summit. None of these attempts to solve the Palestinian Israeli conundrum has produced any results. The only change has been Israel offerring one more concession after concession in each ensuing attempt. No matter what the offerings, the Palestinian leaders have yet to make any real progress in addressing the terroism threats or any move toward peace and mutual recognition.

The negotiations now stand with Israel offering over 95% of the West Bank and Gaza along with an acre for acre trade of land for the incorporation of some of the West Bank for land now within Israel’s Green Line. Not only has this offer been refused, the latest demand is for the universal Right of Return for any Palestinian or their relatives who claim to have been forced or willfully left Israel during the 1948 War of Israeli Independence. The majority of these “refugees” left their land and homes on their own volition at the urging of the Arab countries who invaded the nascent State of Israel with the promise of returning after the Jews had been pushed into the sea. This “Right of Return” would inundate Israel with estimates of anywhere from four million Arab refugess to as much as twenty million refugees. Either way, with a population of approximately six and a half million with one and a half million of these not being Jewish, obviously, such an influx would totally change the demographics of the State of Israel making it no longer a predominantly Jewish state.

The final sticking point which may end up tripping up a President Obama peace promise reaching fruition is the fact that the Palestinian leadership will only accept a solution where there will be only one state in the end, a Palestinian State with no Jewish population. With President elect Obama already promising to establish a Palestinian State with its capital in East Jerusalem, what else might he be willing to force upon Israel. It begs the question, with all these promises made as the starting point to Mahmous Abbas, what else is there to negotiate other than the existance of the Jewish State of Israel? I find this boding an ominous fortelling of the story of Israel and an end that may be nearer than most think. I hope that a President Obama does not force the “Right of Return” or other fatal concessions from Israel through coersion, or worse, by force.

Beyond the Cusp