Following up from the ticking time-bomb, Amb. Bolton's warning and ground zero at Turtle bay posts here at KF, Telegraph is live blogging the developments with the ongoing Palestinian Arab statehood bid at the 66th General Assembly of the UN, here.
As at the time of posting the timelined live-blogging remarks are:
18:06 (13:06) During his speech Abbas said he was calling for a return to the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
18:01 (13:01) Abbas was given a standing ovation at the close of his speech in the UN. AFP are reporting that the crowds watching him on the West Bank "erupted" as the speech finished.17:50 (12:50) He heeds a warning: "'Loss of hope is the greatest threat to peace; despair is the surest route to extremism"
17:48 (12:48) Abbas: "I am here to say after 63 years since the naqba, enough, enough, enough."
This already tells us much -- and none of it good; given what has been seen before [cf. links above], things that however would not be evident to a superficial onlooker.
For instance, it is very tempting to ask, just what catastrophe happened in 1948?
For, at that time it was the Arabs who rejected what is a very favourable settlement and went to war with declared intent of annihilation of a people -- their cousins, returning to and building up their historic homeland that had lain waste and depopulated for centuries -- who had just lost 1/3 their global numbers to the Nazi Genocide.
Similarly, in 1967, it was the Arabs who again built a ring of iron, cut the oil lifeline for Israel [already, an act of war in the teeth of previous international guarantees to Israel that were not honoured . . . ], and breathed out threats of destruction and massacre to the point where the Prime Minister of Israel seemed to suffer a breakdown on live radio -- there being no TV at that time in Israel.
And, indeed, the chief of staff of the IDF at the time did suffer a breakdown; for, of all people, he knew the odds and feared the death of a generation.
Only, in a second "catastrophe" against all odds, the Israelis almost miraculously prevailed. With second line aircraft [except for the sixty Mirage Jets they had from France] and outdated WW II tanks they had modified, going up against then state of the art equipment.
And, yes, in defeating the Egyptians, the Israelis took in war the land of Gaza and Sinai. In defeating the Syrians who had spent twenty years shelling civilians in the Galilee, they took the Golan Heights. And, when -- despite repeated pleas, Jordan joined in, they captured the West Bank and Jerusalem.
By the historic customs of war, they then had the right to hold these lands captured in desperate defensive fighting, pending genuine peace. As we can see, when there was a peace with Egypt, they handed back the Sinai. When there was peace with Jordan, they handed back land they held. Even without a real peace they negotiated with their deadly enemy Arafat, and brought him back to the West Bank. In 2005, they handed back the entire region of Gaza.
And every time, they got further war for their pains, save for the agreements with Jordan and Egypt.
Until things like this are squarely faced by the Arab side, there can be no reasonable peace, and the UN bid clearly marks the death of the Oslo process.
Absent a miracle, it means war; war in an era where the Middle East is at nuclear threshold thanks to the Iranian push for nukes.
Ynet daily adds:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations on Friday to recognize a state for his people, slamming Israel in his General Assembly speech as an "apartheid state."
Speaking at the UN, Abbas accused Israel of employing an “ethnic cleansing policy” in Jerusalem.
This is open, vicious slander by outright false accusation -- by a leader whose government has just declared that his proposed state would be Judenrein (ethnically cleansed of Jews) -- in the leading forum for international relations; and it was greeted with a standing ovation.
This, sadly, is a day of global insanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment