Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. (AP Photo/
Sebastian Scheiner)
In a move that greatly upset Israel and its U.S. politicians, the Palestinians said they are going to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state which would include the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. This would be within the 1967 borders. Peace talks have been going on between the Jewish state and the Palestinians for decades with no results.
On October 22, 2007 the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said there would be peace and the end of the Israel-Palestinian crisis by the end of 2008. This did not happen. People, mainly Israeli and U.S. politicians, have been saying for decades that an agreement will soon be reached, all to no avail.
The U.S. immediately threatened to veto the Palestinian request for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state. This is not surprising. One issue that unifies both major political parties in the U.S. is doing what Israel tells them. For example, Obama told Israel he wanted them to stop building new Jewish settlements on Palestinian land and that he demanded they "freeze" the building of new illegal settlements. When Israel ignored his demand for a freeze of new settlements, Obama changed freeze to "restraint". Obama could tell the Israelis that he will freeze the billions of U.S. tax dollars the politicians send to the Jewish state every year since they're showing such disrespect to America by continuing their settlements in spite of U.S. requests to the contrary. This will never happen due to the death grip the Israeli lobby has on the politicians that is well documented in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.
It appears the Jewish state believes the Bible story that God gave them the state of Israel. As Christian televangelist Pat Robertson makes clear in his article The Land of Israel: A Gift From God, the boarders of the Biblical Israel include much more area than even the current state of Israel now occupies. Robertson states, “go all the way up north to the Euphrates River which encompasses the better part of modern-day Syria. Solomon's empire went up to the Euphrates River. And Tyre and Sidon and Megiddo. And they had the Via Maris which went from Damascus all the way down to Cairo. It went as far as the area down in Gaza." Having a greater Israel of Biblical proportions can only lead to unprecedented and unending war and suffering.
Israel has threatened the Palestinians with annexing/stealing yet more of their land if they continue their efforts to go to the U.N. to finally have their own state/home.
Now may be a good time for U.S. politicians to support the underdog and allow the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state. And Israeli politicians should heed the words of Albert Einstein who said, "Should we be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2,000 years of suffering and deserve all that will come to us."
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