Quartet to Unruly Kids, Make-Up and Get Along

Quartet to Unruly Kids, Make-Up and Get Along

This article is about the announcement by the Quartet, which consists of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, setting forth their framework for Israel and the Palestinians to implement leading to re-launching negotiations and inevitably to an actual peace accord. This plan comes after a full week of speeches and posturing that was all part of the opening session of the United Nations and in response to the Palestinian bid for membership initiated to gain recognition of their statehood with set borders. The Quartet held their deliberations after the presentations throughout the week from the Durban III Conference celebrating the ten year anniversary of the initial conference with its theme of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic declarations; to Ahmadinejad’s rantings against the United States and Israel; to Erdogan’s accusatory orations aimed at Israel demanding apologies and reparations for the casualties of the Mavi Marmara led Flotilla; to Abbas’s insistence that the world grant the Palestinians their wildest dreams denied them by the evil Israelis for over sixty years; but before Netanyahu’s plaintive recitation of Israel’s attributes which seemingly have been overlooked by the world’s assembly.

The minutia within their plan contained such points as the initial meeting to declare intent to implement the Quartet’s plan within four weeks followed by serious and substantive meetings at three months with a review in Moscow replete with mid-term grades to be discussed all culminating in a two state solution by the end of 2012. The words, “We have all been here before”, from a CSNY song keep ringing in my head as I read the laboriously long and elaborate set of benchmarks, supportive ventures, critical tools, frameworks, crucial dates for review with suggested implementations resulting in renewal of purpose, and just about every other tired, worn out, overused and previously iterated newspeak we have been hearing with respect to the Oslo initiated Palestinian Israeli negotiations. Somehow, I get the impression that just as the Quartet trotted out a full list of retreads rather than a new approach, we will witness similar spectacular failures in meeting any of their deadlines and no peace will be formulated placing us in one year right back where we are now at the opening ceremonies of the United Nations.

Secretary of State Clinton spoke approvingly of the great strides that brought forth agreement by the Quartet on direction for the future of these negotiations. That has to beg the question that if the Quartet being able to put forth a plan, no matter how useless and improbable its success, is such a momentous accomplishment, how can we ever expect the Israelis and Palestinians to reach any form of agreement. If it took the Quartet a stop-the-world type momentous effort just to suggest restarting negotiations, and they are presumably all desirous of the same goal, what chance is there that the Palestinian and Israelis can reach an agreement? If you have been following this circus, not the Palestinian Israeli negotiations on what needs to be done in order to negotiate, that has been the meetings of the Quartet for the last few months; you would note that at first they had problems even coming together and meeting, and once they actually met, they were unable to come to an agreement or even close enough to any form of something substantive that they could not even release a statement. There were the occasional statement in response to the press where accusations and blame were tossed between the factions, and these are the powers that be that are supposed to set the agenda, schedule and tone for successful Palestinian Israeli negotiations. This has all the trappings of a made for prime time television comedy where the kids do something obviously very very wrong and the parents spend the better part of the episode fighting between themselves in front of the kids and finally barely reach an agreement, then they attempt to lecture the kids who end up laughing in their faces and going off to do whatever they please. Well, the Israelis and Palestinians don’t publically laugh at the members of the Quartet, but they do seem to continue on their own nonproductive course each side refusing to relent or compromise on a number of their core issues. The real interesting items are the main issues on which each side has proven intransigent.

That might actually make this article be more than just another reporting about the meetings by the Quartet and the related reactions by the Palestinians and the Israelis, well, nothing has changed and nobody seems able to agree on who is at fault or what needs to be done other than to have more negotiations for now. The Israelis insist that the Palestinians recognize that Israel is the Jewish State. The Palestinians claim they cannot recognize such a proposition as that would rule out allowing for millions of Arabs to return into Israel and receive automatic citizenship under the Right of Return. The Israelis refuse to allow the Right of Return under those conditions and offer to take a few tens of thousands of the refugees, the ones who have relatives already residing in Israel, and the rest would return to the Palestinian state. Well, there’s one Gordian Knot, but there are many more like it to go.

Jerusalem, simply saying the name conjures up visions of wars through the ages for this one relatively small city nestled in the hills around Mount Mariah fed by an underground tunnel bringing water from a nearby spring. The city does not hold much tactical importance and is not at the crossroads of major trade routes, that would be Megiddo, yet it is one of the most fought over cities throughout history. The Israelis claim all of Jerusalem as their capital city. The Palestinians insist on having Jerusalem as their capital city even if all they can have is the eastern half of the city, the section that was under Jordanian control after the armistice of 1949. Much of that insistence is in order to control the entire Old City of Jerusalem and also the Temple Mount so that they can, as did the Jordanians, control who gets access to their Holy Sites on the Temple Mount and throughout the Old City. Israel refuses to lose access to the Temple Mount and the Old City or give up on the numerous properties for which they have deeds of ownership that date to before the Jordanian occupation, some even predate the British occupation or even the Ottoman occupation. Another Gordian Knott. I’m going to have to use a different mythological analogy.

The Israelis also insist that the Palestinian state itself be a nonmilitary state. They have proposed having either IDF or shared responsibility with Jordan over the Palestinian state. Israel is not insisting that the Palestinian state not have an independent law enforcement, which would negate the definition of a state. They want a situation similar to that of Japan after World War II where the United States and the allies took responsibility for protecting Japan from outside aggressions and Japan would not raise a sizeable military capable of applying force beyond their boundaries. The Palestinian demand they not only be allowed a full-fledged military with complete freedom to arm their state as amply as they are able and also to be permitted to allow other countries to operate militarily within the Palestinian border without any restrictions by Israel. Israel, remembering the lining of her borders in 1967 and 1973 by Syria and Egypt with troops, armor, artillery, and everything necessary for a full military invasion definitely does not wish to empower a similar scenario in the West Bank the next time her neighbors decide the time has come to push the Jews into the Sea. The reasoning behind the Palestinians, and they have said constantly in Arabic, though refraining from doing so in English thus avoiding coverage in the Western media who are unable of translating anything said in Arabic, that reaching a peace agreement with the 1949 boundaries is but the first step to the final solution which is the eradication of the Zionist entity. Israel’s refusal to place themselves is such a precarious predicament should be obvious. They would be inviting a situation where they would be living with the Sword of Damocles forever raised over their heads (as promised, a different mythological analogy) which is beyond reasonable for any country to be expected to accept.

There exist numerous other points of contention; quite a few are of the simple nature that “if you want it, then I have to deny you having it” type items. The main ones are fairly well known, and if not are so documented that they can readily be found with a few searches of news reports. Many years ago I heard somebody quoting a talk show over a decade ago where the host put it plainly that the only way the Arab Israeli conflict will ever be ended is when one side wins and the other vanquished. That is a problem when you figure that there are over one billion Muslims in the world and approximately fifteen million Jews of which barely half live in Israel. Those are not the best of odds. Going into all the permutations and possibilities of how the confrontations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Arab World and Israel and the Jews, the West and the East, Europe and the Islamization taking hold and all the other related situations would require a large book that I am not ready to write quite yet. Anyways, there are others who have already addressed many of these subjects who are more well-known and have impressive credentials which I lack, so I will leave the scholarly writings of books to those who have recognized portfolios. In the meantime, I will continue to place my two cents worth here and leave it at that, unless somebody wishes to bankroll a more lengthy writing by yours truly.

Beyond the Cusp

For What Else will President Obama be Blamed?

All this coming week we can expect to see pundits, editorialists, journalists and others who make their livelihood commenting on politics heaping blame for the events unfolding in New York. There will be those who will claim that President Obama should have worked more diligently to alter the scheduling and subject matter of the Durban III Conference in order to prevent the conference from devolving into simply another blame Israel and Zionists for every evil in the world while ignoring virtually every other culprit all in the name of celebrating the one decade birthday of the original Durban Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. I doubt any actions available to President Obama would have been capable of having any influence to alter Durban III from being anything other than a collective hate-fest against Israel and Zionists in particular and all Jews in general. Simply put, the Durban Conferences will never ever change their discourse or the chosen victim of the vile echo-chamber first set in stone by the first conference held in Durban, South Africa back in 2001 just one week before the horrific 9/11 terror attacks.

The other event for which the blame will be placed at President Obama’s feet is the expected petitioning of the United Nations in both the Security Council and the General Assembly attempting to attain recognition as a nation state with full United Nations membership. Where some of the blame is most likely legitimate to be placed at President Obama’s feet, much of the Palestinian actions were very likely inevitable and the President likely only hurried them along. The Palestinians had probably planned to make such moves to attain statehood and were simply waiting for what they would perceive as the most opportunistic of situations, and President Obama simply made now feel most opportunistic to the Palestinian leadership. Such was bound to all fall into place sooner or later no matter how prudently the rest of the world acted in order to prevent such events. Despite all those placing much of the blame for the Palestinian attempt for recognition internationally through the United Nations enabling the supplanting the need to negotiate with Israel on President Obama, the supportive actions and intent of the vast majority of NGO’s, the human rights experts and proponents, as well as much of much of Europe and numerous countries outside of the Western nations having been pounding the drums calling for the formation of the Palestinian state would have facilitated these same events sometime in the near future. So, President Obama may have made some obviously detrimental moves concerning the Middle East and Israel, his contributions were not the pivotal excuses that facilitated the Palestinians moves this week.

I guess I should find something different to lay blame at the feet of the President so as not to feel left out of all the fun and the enthusiasm of the Blame Obama movement. In an area fairly removed from the Middle East geographically actually shares a similar form of trouble as does Israel in that countries are facing a problem of an insatiable adversary attempting to infringe on territory they control and further isolate them from the rest of the area and the world by wresting control over these contested areas. The problem concerns the areas around the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Spratly Islands, and the claims of administrative possession China is attempting to force upon the rest of the countries in the area. Included among these countries are the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, and Taipei which are facing a growing military threat by China to take possession by force if necessitated. The problem is even felt as far away as India as it will affect their extensive trade with other nations in Asia, especially Japan. This problem for India with China is on top of numerous other problems between India and China which are some of the longest running conflicts between any two nations anywhere. In the past, when tempers approached boiling over, the United States would arrange some joint military maneuvers of commensurate size to deal with the expansionist policies China is pursuing against their neighbors. In the recent past, such a show of force has been shunned by President Obama under the guise of the United States international policies taking a less confrontational posture. The somewhat distressful consequence of employing such a policy for the United States has allowed for other countries wishing to expand their standings in the world and extending their control and taking leadership positions over their areas of influence, to spread into many areas where previously the United States had kept a semblance of order through displays of power. China has probably taken the most advantage of the complete lack of containment in their little corner of the world by the United States and sees this as their opportunity to push out the nations from much of the waters in order to take control of some of the outlying contested Islands and many fishing areas. The Chinese moves also are making importation by sea a more difficult and costly endeavor as international shipping lanes are falling under Chinese control allowing China to demand fees be paid by ships passing through their extended claimed coastal areas. The ships can avoid these licensing fees by diverting around the areas China is enforcing ownership which delays arrival times and increases fuel usage which causes rising prices.

This is far from a new problem as China has been applying such pressures for decades with the conflicting claims with Japan and the Philippines over fishing rights or ownership of some of the many small, but vital, islands throughout the area such as the most notable ongoing contention over the Spratly Islands. With President Obama choosing not to oppose China in even the smallest of measures while depending on the Chinese to finance much of his stimulus spending, China has felt free to act without any need for restraint pursuing their self-serving policies. One of the earlier signs of how far President Obama was willing to bend in order to not “insult” the leadership of China was exemplified by delaying a meeting with the Dalai Lama and even when meeting with this revered head of the Buddhists, he met the Dalai Lama outside of the Oval Office using an unnamed room that carried less weight of honors than an official Oval Office meeting would have conveyed. Despite such timidity and slight towards the Dalai Lama, the Chinese still objected and President, true to form, offered his earnest apologies. President has shown equal deference towards Chinese claims to extend their administration over new territories simply by refusing to send any United States naval vessels into these areas to reinforce their status as international waters independent of the control of any nation. The importance of these waters and small islands are actually very critically placed to influence and impact heavily traveled trade routes with great importance for Asia. The biggest potential losers should China continue unimpeded in their quests would be Japan and the Philippines, two stalwart allies to the United States in the past. I dare not extend that the designation of allies of the United States as such preferential titles seem to have all been reevaluated and many of those who previously were allies are no longer valued as such. Chalk this avoidance of assisting our previous allies and containing China, as they appear to be standing in opposition to American interests, as well as those of Southeast Asia, to simply be another small and unimportant step in President Obama and his Administration’s efforts towards lessening American imperialism and allowing other countries, the United Nations, or other international groups and organizations to take the lead as the United States faithfully follows along taking no responsibility for anything, especially if it should require real actions which would display American exceptionalism.

Beyond the Cusp

Israel’s Coming Bad Week at the United Nations

It will be at best a very rough week for Israeli interests and at worst a complete and humiliating disaster this coming week at the United Nations. The two most anticipated events in New York this week will be the Durban III Conference celebrating the ten year anniversary of the original Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and the Palestinian petitioning for recognition as a member nation joining the United Nations which they have said they will submit on Friday. With such a full schedule with such portents of disaster, supporters of Israel must be wondering what else could possibly go wrong, well, go wrong beyond the distinct possibility of massive celebrations should the Palestinian State be recognized and granted membership which could turn into violent attacks against the Jews living in Judea and Samaria, or massive riots that begin with the full intent of making Israelis pay for any decision that denies the Palestinian State recognition for full member nation status, even should such be resultant from actions such as the United States using their veto if such petition is filed with the Security Council. The one seemingly guaranteed result will be some upgrade for the Palestinians in their status with regards to the United Nations as it is fairly certain that the General Assembly will vote to grant them similar status as that given to the Vatican City.

Taking these events in their chronological order, the first event on the schedule this week will be the Durban III Conference. Where the conference itself will revisit and once again extend the life of the spirit of the first Durban Conference which was held August 31 to September 7, 2001, in Durban, South Africa. The original conference was taken over by anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic influences and resulted in Israel and the United States to walk-out of the conference denouncing the entire proceedings. The United States, Canada, France, Israel and numerous other countries have announced their intent to boycott the Durban III conference siting the single-minded hatred of Israel that has solely occupied the discussions, resolutions and every function to the point of absurdity while ignoring any problems anywhere else in the world. By Durban definition, Israel, and by association, Jews, are the singular source of all racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance existing in the world today. Where this is a slightly different version and combination of many of the oldest libels, the singularity with which over one hundred nations of the world have joined in tacit support of such hatred is frightening and an unprecedented foreboding. Durban III would suffice to make any week a really evil omen for Israel and her supporters, but it is simply the introductory blow Israel will need to endure this week.

Should everything go as tentatively scheduled, the week will end with the Palestinian petition of the Security Council to be recommended for full membership as a nation in the United Nations pending approval by the General Assembly. Even if denied recommendation, the Palestinian representatives still intend to apply to the General Assembly to at a minimum be granted non-member nation status by the General Assembly. This second proposition is fully expected at this time to be a virtually guarantee for approval. Where this recognition is a non-binding resolution and does not carry the same weight as would any recognition given by the Security Council, this would still provide the Palestinians with a springboard they could utilize to press for further recognitions from other nations and pressure Israel with a more established fact or could sue for recognition and the assistance in forcing the point against Israel. Once the Palestinian has the recognition by sufficient countries of the General Assembly they can then parlay this into something more permanent without necessitating further negotiations with the Israelis. Such a path would eventually reach a critical point where the choices would be for one side to back down and seek a mutually negotiated resolution or risk violence that risks an all or nothing solution.

This will be an eventful week, if nothing more. More likely is that where the Durban III Conference will result in exactly what everybody expects and will have no real consequential influence on the future. I think everybody already realized that the Jews and Israel have their detractors and those who would celebrate their eradication from our world. The Durban III Conference is not changing this reality; it is simply giving it a brief voice that has already faded from its initial occurrence at the first Durban Conference in 2001 which was quickly relegated to distant memory with the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001. The successive Durban Conferences are but empty echoes of an initial shouted claim that was drowned by the crashing of the planes less than a week later. On the other hand, the Palestinian machinations are simply the beginning of potentially a new phase in the long-running aspirations of the Arab and Muslim worlds to eradicate Israel from the map. Where Durban is the reminder of the hatred that has continued throughout the ages, the Palestinians are the latest actuation of that hatred and the tip of the spear currently yielded in the current waves of anti-Semitism.

Beyond the Cusp