51 Days to Go – Palestinians Taking to the Streets

By Sherwin Pomerantz

51 days to go to the opening of the UN General Assembly and the vote on Palestinian statehood and it remains essential that the pressure on the representatives to the UN be kept up or even increased.

Palestinian Chairman Abbas is now clearly concerned about the seeming erosion of support that he had thought was “in his pocket.” News reports out of Israel indicate that Abbas has told his people directly to begin street demonstrations in Israel in support of the proposed UN vote. In his words:

"In this coming period, we want mass action, organized and coordinated in every place (in Israel). This is a chance to raise our voices in front of the world and say that we want our rights."

He then went on to say:

"I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us. We are now inspired by the protests of the Arab Spring, all of which cry out 'peaceful', 'peaceful'."

Just what we need in Israel, eh?

Of course, it remains unclear whether he said this for local consumption or whether he really means for the people to take to the streets. But the good news is that he is worried and that means that the support is continuing to erode.

Meanwhile at the UN, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor addressed the issue of the vote on statehood in an address to the Security Council on Tuesday. In that presentation he spoke directly to the Palestinian Observer Mansour and said:

"Permanent Observer Mansour: On behalf of whom will you present a resolution in September? Mr. Abbas or Hamas? Will it be on behalf of both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorist organization, which advances a charter calling for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews? Will it be on behalf of Akram Haniyeh – the PA’s Chief Spokesman— or Ismail Haniyeh – the Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza who said recently “When I say ‘the land of Palestine,’ I am not referring [only] to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem…I refer to Palestine from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, and from Rosh Hanikra to Rafah.”

He then went on to say:

"Whether the Palestinians bring forward a resolution in the General Assembly or by invoking the “Uniting for Peace” resolution it is clear that the Palestinians are not united and are far from united for peace. There is much uncertainty about the future Palestinian government: its acceptance of the Quartet conditions, the peace process, control of its security forces, and many other questions. It will take at least until after the Palestinian elections next year before it is clear what Palestinian unity really means. For Israel, this so-called unity has only brought continued impunity for the terrorists that fire rockets into our cities."

The support for Palestinian statehood at the UN is cracking and we need to understand that not only is the vote itself wrong, we also need to be concerned about the day after the vote should it succeed, and what that will mean for us here in Israel as well.

As such, I continue to urge all of my readers not to let up pressure on the delegates to the UN and, towards that end, some of the questions raised by Ambassador Prosor bear repeating.

As always, the future is in our hands and we need to rise to the challenge. In the Ethics of the Fathers (Pirke Avot) Rabbi Tarfon is given credit for saying “It is not upon you to complete the task, but you are not free to idle from it.” That injunction is no less true today than it was when it was written and we need to hear it.