120 Days to Go
Palestinian Arabs: Living in a Self-Created Reality!

By Sherwin Pomerantz

With only 120 days to September 14th and the opening of the fall 2011 session of the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu took the podium in Israel’s Knesset on Monday and laid out the essence of Israel’s position vis-à-vis forward movement of the peace process. Interestingly, although we are certainly not in contact, every one of his six points was contained in my 10 YES’s in Monday’s blog posting.

For the first time the Prime Minister spoke publicly about Israel’s willingness, in the context of a secure peace and an end to all further Palestinian Arab claims, to withdraw from some of the settlements in Judea and Samaria for which, of course, he was immediately assailed from the right and praised by the left. He also reiterated Israel’s commitment not do divide Jerusalem, for which he was praised by the right and assailed by the Palestinian Arab members of the Knesset. No surprises there at all. At least now we know, more or less, the message he will bring with him when he travels to the U.S. later this week.

But not to be outdone, Mahmoud Abbas, in an editorial in today’s New York Times, speaks about the “Long Overdue Palestinian State” to quote the title of the piece which is, as one would expect, replete with omissions that the Palestinian Authority President finds convenient to dismiss.

For example, he says:

It is important to note that the last time the question of Palestinian statehood took center stage at the General Assembly, the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled the Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel.

Was that really the case? Clearly the President conveniently omits a paragraph preceding the last sentence above. History will show that in response to the General Assembly resolution and the impending pullout of British forces from the area, the head of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion, in the name of the Jewish people, declared the establishment of the State of Israel according to the terms of the General Assembly resolution.

The Palestinian Arabs did not do so and, instead, joined by five of the seven countries of the Arab League at that time (i.e. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, backed by Saudi Arabian and Yemenite contingents) invaded the territory in the former British Mandate of Palestine on the night of 14–15 May 1948. The forces of Syria and Egypt launched attacks outside of the proposed Arab section of the Partition Plan while Jordan invaded the proposed "Corpus Separatum", which had yet to be instituted, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

While the Palestinian Arab community, had they accepted the Partition Plan, could have lived in peace with Israel for the last 63 years, they and their leadership made the choice not to do so. And that refusal to accept the resolution of the very General Assembly that Abbas now wants to ratify statehood is the root cause of everything bad that has happened here since 1948.

Abbas goes on to say that:

Minutes after the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, the United States granted recognition. Our Palestinian state, however, remains a promise unfulfilled.

Truth be told, the Palestinian Arab leadership at the time did not declare a state and, therefore, there was nothing for the U.S. to recognize. Had the reverse been true, given the traditional Arabist tendencies of the U.S. State Department, my guess is that recognition would have come immediately. Remember, former Pres. Truman’s recognition of Israel came about against the recommendation even of George Marshall, then his Secretary of State.

But the best line in his diatribe is the following one:

We go to the United Nations now to secure the right to live free in the remaining 22 percent of our historic homeland because we have been negotiating with the State of Israel for 20 years without coming any closer to realizing a state of our own.

Is that a serious statement? As I recall the sides were quite close at Camp David in the year 2000 when Arafat left the negotiations with a solid offer from Israel to which he never responded. And that was just one example, there are others to be sure. And what about the recent 10 month freeze on settlement building by Israel during which time Abbas and his cronies were not willing to sit down with the Netanyahu government only to demand, after the freeze ended, that unless there was a new freeze on settlement building they would not be prepared to negotiate. Was that Israel’s fault as well?

I could go on but the clear message here is proof of the Palestinian Arab’s leadership’s ability to create their own reality and act on that rather than recognizing the real facts supported by the historical record.

With just 120 days to September 14th, thinking Israelis should be grateful for the clear statement of principles that our Prime Minister has finally shared with us before he does so in the U.S. As such, it is incumbent upon us and caring people everywhere to let him know that he has our support for the good and welfare of the future existence of the State of Israel, the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people. We can and should do no less!