Joe Biden Against a Palestinian State Recognition At UN and Why

 Nadene Goldfoot       

FLAME                                         

This article is from FLAME.  I tried up upload it onto facebook, but it didn't work, so here it is;  too factual to ignore.

Why Biden was right to reject a Palestinian state at the UN Security Council

Dear Friend of FLAME:

Last week, the Palestinians indicated they intend to seek UN Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in next month’s meeting.                                     

The Biden administration promptly implored Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to abandon the idea, and threatened a veto should the matter come to a vote.

Why would President Biden—who just last month on his Middle East trip often repeated his commitment to a two-state solution—now quash the idea of UN recognition?

Four reasons explain why the U.S. does not—and should not—recognize a Palestinian state today.

       116th Congress of January 2019: Thursday’s House speaker vote and opening of the 116th Congress set up a striking visual moment in the lower chamber: On Democrats’ side of the aisle, a historically diverse class of women and people of color were clad in bright outfits as they were sworn in, while on the Republican side, a relatively homogeneous group of mostly white men wore nearly identical dark suits.                

Palestinians throw stones at Israeli soldiers during an anti-Israel protest over tension in Jerusalem, at the Qalandiya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, on May 11. ABBAS MOMANI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

1. Violates U.S. law: First, the U.S. Congress has passed several laws over the years that would cut direct U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it obtains status as a UN member absent a peace deal with Israel.                              

2. PA refuses reasonable negotiations: Second, while the U.S. supports two states, it firmly believes that a two-state solution must be arrived at through direct negotiations between the PA and Israel—and that there are no shortcuts to that route. Biden’s State Department has made that clear.

While Israel has generally shown willingness to participate in serious peace talks with the PA, the Palestinians have outright rejected peace offers in 2000, 2001 and 2008 that would have given them a state in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and a capital in Jerusalem. Those offers were crafted jointly by Israel and the U.S.

Since that time, the Palestinians have walked out on or refused peace negotiations proposed by the U.S.—most recently by Presidents Obama (in 2010 and 2014) and Trump (in 2020).

In 2014, Abbas rejected Obama-sponsored peace negotiations unless Israel agreed to three standing PA demands: 1) No recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, 2) full “right of return” into Israel for Palestinian refugees and millions of their descendants, and 3) refusal to commit to an “end of the conflict”—terminating additional Palestinian demands of Israel after a peace deal.

Suffice it to say, these demands are deal-killers for Israel—since each undermines the very sovereignty and foundation of the Jewish state. The PA knows this and uses these demands as excuses to block any peace negotiations with Israel.

     Hamas's name is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic 

Resistance Movement, originating as it did in 1988 after the 

beginning of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against 

Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under 

its charter, it is committed to the destruction of Israel.

3. Dueling dictatorships cannot reconcile. The third factor that makes a Palestinian state currently impossible is the bitter, often-violent conflict between the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria and Hamas in Gaza.

Today’s PA is a corrupt, teetering autocracy with no heir apparent to the 87-year-old Abbas. It’s widely believed that the PA would collapse into the hands of Hamas without Israel’s security support, let alone the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into it annually by Western nations.

Gaza is effectively already a self-governing statelet. Hamas—a group designated as terrorist by the U.S. and European nations—is financially supported largely by Qatar and Iran.

In fact, both governing factions are dictatorships, ruling their territories with no elections and repressive iron hands. A Palestinian state today would have no defined borders, no unified government, and no sustaining economy. To declare a Palestinian state would sanctify a civil war between outlaw rivals and embroil Israel in the bloody crossfire.                      

Children at a Palestinian summer camp tear pictures of the American flag and US President Donald Trump as a counselor sets them on fire, in a video posted on Facebook by the Palestinian Authority Higher Council for Youth and Sports, July 3, 2019.

4. Disrespect for United States interests: The fourth reason the U.S. should refuse overtures by the PA to perfunctorily form a state is the lack of respect the Palestinians have shown toward its benefactor, America.                                  

Consider that since 1994, the United States has contributed 7.8 billion taxpayer dollars to Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, making us the most magnanimous and consistent funder of the Palestinian national movement. (Overall contributions by the UN, the EU and EU member states amount to an additional $27 billion.)

You might fairly ask, “What has the U.S. received for this massive ‘investment’?” The fairest answer would be, “Nothing.”

Indeed, politicians have justified these billions in aid by arguing that we are supporting development of a stable Palestinian society. The hope has been that that the Palestinians will become functional enough to actually launch and manage a state . . . and flexible enough to negotiate peace with Israel.

Both hopes have failed utterly.

Not only has Palestinian society become more fragmented and financially bankrupt, but its governments have become increasingly more corrupt and oppressive.

This has not stopped the Biden administration, which in the last five months has restored funding cut by President Trump, resuming $235 million in assistance to the Palestinians in April and then an additional $316 million in July.

Perhaps every more curious—and insulting—in the face of such American generosity, the Palestinians have consistently scorned U.S. interests in the Middle East and globally.

Palestinian leaders, for example, have a tradition of supporting anti-American, authoritarian tyrannies.

Just last month, when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, risking Chinese disapproval, Mahmoud Abbas’ office issued a statement supporting the Chinese position.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat opposed us and supported Saddam Hussein. In response, Kuwait expelled some 400,000 Palestinians who lived there.

During the Cold War, the Palestinians supported Russia, not the U.S. Today they support Russia against Ukraine.

The Palestinians have consistently backed North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un, while the North Koreans have returned the favor, lauding the Palestinians for opposing U.S. policies.

During the rise of Adolf Hitler and during World War II, Palestinian mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini aligned and met with the German dictator to discuss plans for expanding the genocide of Jews to the Middle East.                            

Palestinian Leader Denounces Trump’s Peace Plan

When Donald Trump presented his peace plan—including an $80 billion development package—to the Palestinians in 2020, President Abbas angrily responded with “a thousand no’s.”

Resource:

https://www.factsandlogic.org/