Comment 2
Recognition as a state by the UN for the Palestinians would be largely ceremonial and Israel even opposes this. Justice delayed is justice denied. The British under the Mandate were supposed to be preparing Palestine for independence but they double promised the land to two people. The majority of the population of the country was Muslim and Christian in 1948, even after massive Jewish immigration (much of it illegal). The United Nations resolutions called on Israel to return to the Partition Plan boundaries. And there have been numerous resolutions after 1967 calling for a return to previous boundaries, all of them ignored and/or vetoed by the US. In the meantime, Israel has created facts on the ground with hundreds of thousands of settlers; in the West Bank, all of them on land taken from Palestinians. Israel has walled in the Palestinians and did this unilaterally without negotiating it with the Palestinians. This is setting de facto boundaries and is mass punishment against the Palestinians. The so-called peace talks for 20 years have been stalling mechanisms for Israel, while they created these facts on the ground. A return to more of the same is ridiculous. A negotiated two-state solution is dead in the water.

Mr. Abbas knows the Palestinians are fed up with his lack of leadership and progress as they continue to live in misery and they will likely rise up against him, as the Arab Awakening spreads to the Palestinians. He knows this is his last stand. For the Israelis, they have to realize that if Abbas fails and this bid fails, which the US has said it will kill, that the two-state solution will be dead forever. As the US has taken this stance, this marks the beginning of the end of US hegemony in the Arab world. The Arab Awakening that is happening has at its core a focus on human rights. The US veto is a betrayal of the concept of equal rights for Arabs. This will badly damage US currency in the Arab and larger Muslim world and the Global South, as if the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have not already tarnished the US. The people of the region can see that all the US wants is cheap oil and total support of Israel, no matter how badly they treat the Palestinians. This does not bode well for future US relations in the region. This is truly a lose-lose proposition for everyone involved.

To tell the Palestinians they cannot even ask for independence just is not going to play well. The Arab region will develop with democracy and they can just vote to exclude Israel from any regional development until they treat their Arabs as equals. Israel will be asked to treat all of its Arabs as equals to Jews and this is common sense. Israel will have to become a normal nation that is a true democracy for all its citizens, Arabs and Jews alike regardless of religion. The new Arab democracies must treat all their minorities as equals as well including its Jews, Christians, and others. I propose a Bill of Rights be passed by all the countries in the region, including Israel. When people learn to respect each other's rights, then there can be real peace.

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