US needs to support Palestinian state at UN

موضوع: US needs to support Palestinian state at UN 2011-08-30, 3:52 am

Palestinian President Abbas says he will return to the negotiating table after the UN vote [GALLO/GETTY]

First, let me put all my cards on the table. I believe that the
intentional killing of civilians, whether by Palestinian terrorists on
the ground or by the Israeli Air Force from the sky, is a war crime. As
far as killing kids, I will paraphrase what Lincoln said about slavery:
if killing a child, any child, is not wrong then nothing is wrong.

Nonetheless, Israel and the Palestinians resumed the cycle of violence again this week and, if not stopped, it will spiral into mmind civilian carnage.

Both
sides are responsible. But I do not hold a bunch of rag tag terrorist
thugs to the same standards I apply to a powerful state. So, yes, I do
expect more from Israel.

Besides, every bullet and bomb Israel
uses against Palestinians is paid for by the American taxpayer. We
oppose Hamas and have no leverage with it. But we subsidise
Israel with more aid than any other country in the world. That gives us
both authority and responsibility. More significantly, Israel's
behaviour endangers our interests, as General David Petraeus told Congress -
including our men and women in the Middle East. After all, the whole
world sees the US and Israel as joined at the hip. Even our own vice
president repeatedly says that there must be "no daylight" between Israel and the United States.

Although
we have no leverage with Hamas, we can offer incentives that will make
it more willing to stop the violence. Instead of telling Hamas that we
won't deal with it unless it recognises Israel prior to negotiations, we
should tell it that our only requirement for working with all Palestinians
is that it permanently end terror attacks against Israel. Hamas would
be intelligent to recognise Israel in advance of negotiations when the
question of recognition would be the subject of the negotiations.

As
for Israel, we need to insist that it end the blockade of Gaza.
Inspections can prevent weapons from going in, but until Gaza controls
its own borders, and not Israel, it remains occupied no matter what the
Israelis say. Occupied, and living in poverty.

But most
important of all, the United States should support the Palestinians' bid
for recognition as a state at the United Nations. The Israelis have
demanded for decades that the Palestinians drop violence and turn to
diplomacy to achieve their goals. That is what going to the United
Nations is. Diplomacy.

The United States should say that if Hamas
will end the violence and join with the Palestinian Authority's effort
to achieve UN recognition as a state, we will support it. Why not? The
Palestinians are not seeking
recognition of their sovereignty inside Israel, but only on occupied
land that rightfully belongs to them: Gaza, the West Bank and East
Jerusalem. Nor would recognition by itself kick any Israeli out of those
territories.

It would, however, change the political dynamic.
Instead of Palestinians begging for a few crumbs from the State of
Israel, there would be two states that could negotiate an agreement that
would guarantee security for both. President Abbas himself says that following a UN vote, he will immediately return to the negotiating table.

In
short, the Palestinian decision to turn to the UN is not a threat to
Israel, it is an opportunity. And Israel cannot afford to miss any more
opportunities, especially now that its two strongest friends in the
region, Egypt and Turkey, are distancing themselves from Israel as fast as they can.

Of
course, one can argue about who is right and who is wrong endlessly.
But that leads nowhere but to the grave. The UN offers a way out, a way
to guarantee security for two states and two peoples.

Frankly,
I expect the US to support Israel's rejection of UN action simply
because 2012 is another election year and both the president and
Congress live in fear of losing campaign contributions. But just maybe
they can take a look at what is about to happen if the United States
does not begin acting like an honest broker. There will be another war.
And another. And, with Hezbollah's missiles at the ready, ultimately
these wars won't be as one-sided as Israel's previous wars with the
Palestinians.

People who care about Israel, about Palestine and,
need I say, about our own country, need to tell the president to do the
right thing, not the politically expedient thing. He needs to instruct
our ambmindador at the United Nations to vote "yes" on the question of
statehood for Palestine.

The alternative will be more weeks like the last one, and much much worse.

MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Media Matters Action Network. This article first appeared in Foreign Policy Matters, a part of the Media Matters Action Network.

You can follow MJ on twitter @MJayRosenberg

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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