Palestinians Pursue 'Plan B'
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
One again the Americans stand alone in the world by blocking a peaceful resolution to the conflict in accordance with international law:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12099625
Palestinians pursue 'Plan B' after failed talks
1 January 2011
Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis have reached an impasse over the thorny issue of Jewish settlements. As Washington searches for a way forward, the Palestinians are taking things into their own hands by pursuing a "Plan B", asking countries to recognise an independent Palestinian state. The BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
As the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid the symbolic cornerstone for a new embassy in Brazil on Friday, he hoped the greater significance of the act would be noted.
In recent weeks the South American nation and its neighbours, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador, have all officially recognised Palestine as an independent state within 1967 borders - that is to say the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Uruguay says it will do the same in 2011 and Palestinian officials suggest at least another two countries are lined up to follow suit, though they are not saying which.
As the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict with Israel have dimmed once again, the Palestinians say they are pursuing new and alternative diplomatic options.
"Since all the peace process has been based on the 1967 borders we are asking countries to recognise us on these borders," says Palestinian negotiator, Nabil Shaath, who has accompanied Mr Abbas on his trip.
"This is revitalising and re-consecrating a principle that emanates from international law and all the agreements that we've signed before."
Israel however, disagrees. The foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, insists that the Palestinians can only achieve statehood through a peace deal with Israel.
"We are now breaching the whole framework that has allowed us to negotiate so far," he states.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to drop their tactic and return to direct talks.
These were launched on 2 September 2010 in Washington but stalled just weeks later when a partial freeze on Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank expired.
"By rewarding the Palestinians as it were, when they refuse to negotiate, this will certainly not encourage them to return to the negotiating table," Mr Palmor says. "If we don't negotiate how will we ever be able to get an agreement?"
The United States also opposes the Palestinian approach. This month the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on Palestinian leaders to stop trying to gain recognition for a state from other nations.
It urged the US administration to "deny any unilaterally declared Palestinian state" and "veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognise a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties".
In Brussels, however, the efforts of Mr Abbas and his aides have been slightly more successful, reflecting growing frustration at Israeli intransigence on settlement building.
A recent EU communique hinted that recognition of a Palestinian state was a future option.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and EU Representative Christian Berger The Palestinians aim to complete building of state institutions by mid-2011 with help from donors.
"We welcome the World Bank's assessment that "if the Palestinian Authority maintains its current performance in institution building and public services, it is well positioned for the establishment of a state at any point in the near future,"" it read.
The EU has since signed a new 31m-euro ($41m) financing deal to help the Palestinian Authority's much lauded drive to build the institutions of statehood. This has already brought economic growth and improvements in security and public services.
Mr Abbas can celebrate such results on his new year visit to South America as he meets leaders and Palestinian expatriates who live in large numbers in the region.
Reports suggest that meanwhile Israel has stepped up diplomatic activity, warning of the dangers of prematurely recognising Palestinian statehood.
The late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, unilaterally declared the establishment of a state in 1988, winning recognition from about 100 countries, mainly Arab, Communist and non-aligned states - several of them in Latin America.
However, this has had little impact on efforts to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict.
Now, though, the Palestinians hope that recognition can be part of their "Plan B", adding to pressure on Israel after the US officially abandoned its attempts to secure a new moratorium on settlement construction as it works to revive peace talks.
While Washington has proposed a return to indirect negotiations, the Palestinians are refusing.
They say that for now they will continue a strategy to gain international support for their cause.
This also includes, Palestinian officials say, non-violent opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, pursuing reconciliation between rival Palestinian political factions and asking the UN to condemn Israeli settlements.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12099625
Palestinians pursue 'Plan B' after failed talks
1 January 2011
Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis have reached an impasse over the thorny issue of Jewish settlements. As Washington searches for a way forward, the Palestinians are taking things into their own hands by pursuing a "Plan B", asking countries to recognise an independent Palestinian state. The BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
As the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid the symbolic cornerstone for a new embassy in Brazil on Friday, he hoped the greater significance of the act would be noted.
In recent weeks the South American nation and its neighbours, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador, have all officially recognised Palestine as an independent state within 1967 borders - that is to say the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Uruguay says it will do the same in 2011 and Palestinian officials suggest at least another two countries are lined up to follow suit, though they are not saying which.
As the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict with Israel have dimmed once again, the Palestinians say they are pursuing new and alternative diplomatic options.
"Since all the peace process has been based on the 1967 borders we are asking countries to recognise us on these borders," says Palestinian negotiator, Nabil Shaath, who has accompanied Mr Abbas on his trip.
"This is revitalising and re-consecrating a principle that emanates from international law and all the agreements that we've signed before."
Israel however, disagrees. The foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, insists that the Palestinians can only achieve statehood through a peace deal with Israel.
"We are now breaching the whole framework that has allowed us to negotiate so far," he states.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to drop their tactic and return to direct talks.
These were launched on 2 September 2010 in Washington but stalled just weeks later when a partial freeze on Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank expired.
"By rewarding the Palestinians as it were, when they refuse to negotiate, this will certainly not encourage them to return to the negotiating table," Mr Palmor says. "If we don't negotiate how will we ever be able to get an agreement?"
The United States also opposes the Palestinian approach. This month the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on Palestinian leaders to stop trying to gain recognition for a state from other nations.
It urged the US administration to "deny any unilaterally declared Palestinian state" and "veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognise a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties".
In Brussels, however, the efforts of Mr Abbas and his aides have been slightly more successful, reflecting growing frustration at Israeli intransigence on settlement building.
A recent EU communique hinted that recognition of a Palestinian state was a future option.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and EU Representative Christian Berger The Palestinians aim to complete building of state institutions by mid-2011 with help from donors.
"We welcome the World Bank's assessment that "if the Palestinian Authority maintains its current performance in institution building and public services, it is well positioned for the establishment of a state at any point in the near future,"" it read.
The EU has since signed a new 31m-euro ($41m) financing deal to help the Palestinian Authority's much lauded drive to build the institutions of statehood. This has already brought economic growth and improvements in security and public services.
Mr Abbas can celebrate such results on his new year visit to South America as he meets leaders and Palestinian expatriates who live in large numbers in the region.
Reports suggest that meanwhile Israel has stepped up diplomatic activity, warning of the dangers of prematurely recognising Palestinian statehood.
The late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, unilaterally declared the establishment of a state in 1988, winning recognition from about 100 countries, mainly Arab, Communist and non-aligned states - several of them in Latin America.
However, this has had little impact on efforts to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict.
Now, though, the Palestinians hope that recognition can be part of their "Plan B", adding to pressure on Israel after the US officially abandoned its attempts to secure a new moratorium on settlement construction as it works to revive peace talks.
While Washington has proposed a return to indirect negotiations, the Palestinians are refusing.
They say that for now they will continue a strategy to gain international support for their cause.
This also includes, Palestinian officials say, non-violent opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, pursuing reconciliation between rival Palestinian political factions and asking the UN to condemn Israeli settlements.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Why? Should the Palestinians not be entitled to their own country?
Hypocrisy anyone?
they are entitled to the country they already live in... that theyve always lived in... to live anywhwre within its borders... not to be corralled the way they are now. i do not support the 2 state solution for reasons ive stated elsewhere.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Because the Israelis control the Americans.
On the question of Palestine, the US is a rogue state
Nations covering 80-90% of the world's population recognise Palestine as a state. The US, subservient to Israel, stands out
John Whitbeck
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 December 2010
On 17 December, Bolivia extended diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine within its full pre-1967 borders (all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem). Coming soon after the similar recognitions by Brazil and Argentina, Bolivia's recognition brought to 106 the number of UN member states recognising the state of Palestine, whose independence was proclaimed on 15 November, 1988.
While still under foreign belligerent occupation, the state of Palestine possesses all the customary international law criteria for sovereign statehood. No portion of its territory is recognised by any other country (other than Israel) as any other country's sovereign territory and, indeed, Israel has only asserted sovereignty over a small portion of its territory – expanded East Jerusalem – leaving sovereignty over the rest both literally and legally uncontested.
In this context, it may be enlightening to consider the quality as well as the quantity of the states extending diplomatic recognition.
Of the world's nine most populous states, eight (all except the US) recognise the state of Palestine. Of the world's 20 most populous states, 15 (all except the US, Japan, Mexico, Germany and Thailand) recognise the state of Palestine.
By contrast, the 72 UN member states that currently recognise the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state include only one of the nine most populous states (the US) and only four of the 20 most populous states (the US, Japan, Germany and Turkey).
When, in July, the international court of justice held that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence did not violate international law because international law is silent on the subject of the legality of declarations of independence (meaning that no declarations of independence violate international law and all are "legal", albeit subject to the political decisions of sovereign states to recognise or not the independence declared), the US responded by calling on all countries that had not already recognised Kosovo to do so promptly. Five months later, only three more have seen fit to do so – Honduras, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
If the Arab League were now to call on the minority of UN member states that have not already recognised Palestine to do so promptly, it is certain that the response would be far superior (both in quantity and in quality) to the response to the recent American appeal on behalf of Kosovo – and the Arab League should do so.
Notwithstanding that states encompassing between 80% and 90% of the world's population (by my rough calculations) recognise the state of Palestine, while states encompassing only between 10% and 20% of the world's population recognise the Republic of Kosovo, the western media (and much of the non-western media as well) act as though Kosovo's independence were an accomplished fact while Palestine's independence is only an aspiration that can never be realised without Israeli-American consent; and much of international public opinion (including, apparently, the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah) has – at least until recently – permitted itself to be brainwashed into thinking and acting accordingly.
As in most aspects of international relations, it is not the nature of the act (or crime) that matters but, rather, who is doing it to whom. Palestine was conquered, and is still occupied 43 years later, by the military forces of Israel. What most of the world (including the UN and even five EU member states) still regards as the Serbian province of Kosovo was conquered and is still occupied, 11 years later, by the military forces of Nato; the American flag is flown there at least as widely as the Kosovo flag and the capital, Pristina, boasts a Bill Clinton Boulevard and a larger-than-life-size statue of the former American president.
Might makes right, at least in the hearts and minds of the mighty, including most western decision makers and opinion formers.
Meanwhile, as a perpetual "peace process" appears suddenly threatened by peaceful recourse to international law and international organisations, the US House of Representatives has adopted, by a unanimous voice vote, a resolution drafted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) calling on President Obama not to recognise the state of Palestine and to veto any effort by Palestine to obtain UN membership.
Western politicians and the western media customarily apply the term "international community" to the United States and whatever countries are willing to publicly support it on a given issue, and apply the term "rogue state" to any country that actively resists Israeli-American policy.
By its subservience to Israel – as reflected yet again, both in the absence of a single brave voice raised against this new House resolution and in the Obama administration's recently rejected offer of a huge military and diplomatic bribe to Israel in reward for a mere 90-day suspension of its illegal colonisation programme – the United States has effectively excluded itself from the true international community (redefined to refer to the great majority of mankind) and become a true rogue state, acting in consistent and flagrant contempt of both international law and fundamental human rights.
One might hope that the United States could still pull back from the abyss and recover its own independence, but all signs are pointing in the opposite direction. It is a sad ending for a once admirable country.