No Peace? Palestinian statehood’s laughable goal

Without peace, Palestinian statehood's laughable goal

Thursday 2nd June 2011

The world teeters at the edge of a most precarious precipice, our enemies gather like storm clouds, Western civilisation as we know it is being challenged by a theocratic Islamist menace; yet our world seems bereft of leadership on the world stage.

Not since just before the gathering threat of the Nazis in the Thirties, when Neville Chamberlain led these lands, has there been such a collection of people on the world stage with so little understanding or even recognition of the threat developing, or how to confront and defeat it.

David Cameron by his statements alone is less friendly to Israel than Obama. Neither gets it, never have and never will.
Major trouble is brewing in the Middle East on two main fronts. First is the so-called Arab Spring, where the players have not been defined, nor have we really ascertained if what we are seeing playing out on Middle Eastern streets is really a revolution, an uprising or an insurgency. We do not know if autocratic regimes who act as allies to the West are being replaced by some kind of democratic, or at least more transparent and representative, system or by Islamist regimes just as totalitarian or worse, backed by Iran and unfriendly to the West and Israel.

We are now about to fund these regimes to the tune of billions even though we don't know who they are, or considering that the history of aid is that it doesn't work. It gets wasted, keeps corrupt leaders in power and their peoples down and starving; it foments only more hatred; in the least, it doesn�t make us any friends.

Also, on the world stage, and more perplexing still, is the desire to push for Palestinian statehood rather than address the fact that no peace exists in the region (or even in the putative state itself), making statehood a laughable goal. On this front, a theatrical play is taking place; one of many acts and on different stages simultaneously.

There is the Mavi Marmara replay. It has been one year since the so-called aid ship tried to bust the Israeli blockade. The truth of the ship have been exposed; even by the BBC's Panorama, as have the facts about the thugs on board, the few and out-of-date supplies and the extent of aid and scarcity of poverty in Gaza; what poverty there is is caused by the corrupt dealings of Fatah and Hamas. Now more flotillas are planned not to break any blockade, but purely for propaganda reasons.

The propaganda is easy when there are willing dupes and useful idiots in the West. Take for instance the raid on Israeli borders on the anniversary of the "naqba" which was somehow interpreted by the press, laughably, as part of the Arab Spring.

The final act in this play leads to September, when the Palestinians are pushing for recognition at the UN. Incredibly, Britain may back this cause even though it is meaningless and serves only to marginalise Israel.

According to news reports, Tony Blair stated that Barack Obama made his pitch for renewed peace talks; and the return to the �67 borders, out of "concern" for what might happen to Israel if Palestinian statehood is endorsed by the UN General Assembly. Blair explains that it is an attempt by the president to "fill the vacuum which he sees as dangerous, particularly dangerous for Israel in the run-up to September".
Obama and even Cameron may feel they are friendly to Israel and acting in her best interests, but they are doing so from the wrong premise. Borders are meaningless, and so is statehood; for the Palestinians, if it is run by leaders.

Trying to pacify the wrong leaders with aid only furthers their cause, it does not birth nascent democracies, which "Palestine" is not; the Palestinians receive more aid per capita than just about anybody; even with the shopping malls and five star restaurants.

Putting the onus of peacemaking on Israel, making her make concrete sacrifice of land and security for mere ephemeral promises, does not lead to peace.

A different kind of thinking is needed in dealing with the Palestinians; it starts with sticking up for friends and allies, for the only democracy in the region. With the exception of Stephen Harper of Canada, our current crop of leaders does not get this. At the crossroads of history, the world stage is dominated by a lame bunch of feckless leaders with little knowledge of foreign affairs, principle or foresight. Like Jimmy Carter, Obama and Cameron will leave us a 30-year legacy to cope with. I only hope Israel at least survives them.
If Israel cannot survive, the rest of us do not stand a chance.