101 Days to Go
Are We Too Arrogant for our Own Good?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

101 days from now the United Nations General Assembly’s 2011 session in New York will open and, if all goes according to Palestinian plans there will be a vote to grant the Palestinians recognition for statehood. At the moment, it appears that the Palestinians have enough support to pass that motion, but, as my father of blessed memory used to say, “there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and lip.”

A significant number of my readers have let me know that they think that I (along with many others) are making too much of this, that the whole exercise is only a side show and that nothing will happen the day after even if the vote passes. Some even accuse me of being in the ranks of those who look to generate panic in anticipation of that vote. I, of course, do not have absolute wisdom, but neither do those who differ with me. So the question remains, is there something we should be doing or do we just sit around waiting to see what happens.

Well, I have never lived my life that way and I believe that, in principle, it is simply the wrong approach because, in this case, it sends our adversaries the wrong message. It may be telling them that we don’t care, but I do care. It may be telling them that it is not important in the grand scheme of things, but I think it is important. It may be telling them that we have no alternative position, and I think that would be an abdication of our responsibility as Israelis. Worst of all, it may be telling them that by not acknowledging the potential for serious problems in the aftermath of the vote, that we are simply being arrogant and I don’t believe we can afford that.

I have been urging for some time that all of us, the private citizens of the world, engage in a letter writing campaign to UN delegates in New York conveying our wish that they not vote in favor of such a resolution and telling them why. I still believe that this is a worthwhile effort and should be pursued.

In addition, I think it was a mistake for Prime Minister Netanyahu to have told the French “no” this week in response to their offer to host a meeting on their soil in which both the Prime Minister and PA Chairman Abbas would participate. Earlier in the week Abbas agreed to go but set out certain conditions that would have to be met before he would attend. I may not be a student of diplomacy, but I fail to see why our Prime Minister could not have also provided a qualified yes in which he would lay out the conditions that would have to be met in order for Israel to be present. In any event, Hamas immediately vilified Chairman Abbas and publicly stated that as members of the PA ruling coalition, they were against attending such a meeting with Israeli representatives and that, in the future, Abbas should consult with them before agreeing to such meetings. Bottom line? Israel missed another opportunity to take the high road by issuing an immediate rebuff to the offer of the French.

We do this kind of thing with regularity. In 2002 the Arab countries submitted a wide-ranging peace initiative which spoke about full diplomatic recognition and an end to the conflict in return for other considerations. There was also a Saudi initiative floated. But Israel never formally responded. Why not? Or perhaps we really are more arrogant than we want to believe.

Our region of the world is changing every day and the standards under which we operated in the past, for the most part, no longer obtain. So while I believe that we must maintain our principles and, like every sovereign nation, protect that sovereignty and make decisions that are in our own best interests, some good public relations would not hurt us either. Our Prime Minister and his advisors missed this opportunity this week and, once again, world opinion will see us at the recalcitrant party. Sadly, another opportunity lost.