Tuesday, August 25, 2009
One Jerusalem has a rather sensational headline, the type of thing we've been used to seeing since Obama was elected but which has us on some level thinking, "OK everybody, just chill a little..." This one, however, has a certain plausibility attached: ALERT :: OBAMA PLANNING ISRAEL AMBUSH AT OPENING OF UN ASSEMBLY!
Several sources have informed One Jerusalem that the Obama Administration is planning to significantly step up the pressure on Israel by announcing a comprehensive plan for Israel and the Palestinians at the opening of the United Nations General in September.
Picture this: The anti-Israel nations of the world surrounding President Obama as he demands that Israel give up sovereignty over Jerusalem, abandon settlements, and recognize a terrorist state on the West Bank.
If this happens, Israel will be isolated from the rest of world in a very dramatic manner.
The first sign that something was up came when Egyptian President Mubarak said that the Obama Administration was ready to propose a plan in September and the White House rushed to dampen expectations by declaring that they are nowhere near to readying a plan.
Our sources confirmed that the Obama administration is contemplating this ambush of Israel at the United Nations...
You can still color me somewhat skeptical, but you have to admit that the Administration has been doing all it could to grant the air of plausibility to such things given their tendency toward internationalism, appeasement, faith in the United Nations and this Administration's willingness to go to great lengths to make these institutions work, reality and experience be damned. Not to mention their efforts to fit the square peg of Arab/Israeli peace through the round hole of Arab intransigence (all the while hammering the Israeli's heads in order to force it through).
It's also interesting to note the latest statements of Salam Fayayd: Palestinian PM: We'll form de facto state by 2011
The Palestinian Authority intends to establish a de-facto state within the next two years, despite failing peace talks, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday.
"We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored," Fayyad told the Times of London. "This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly."
According to Fayyad, the idea would be to "end the occupation, despite the occupation."
The de facto state would include security forces, public services and a thriving economy, Fayyad told the Times, and would hopfully serve as the impetus to Israel to move foward on its own commitments.
Fayyad was to unveil his plan for building the institutions and infrastructure of the state of Palestine, which he said could feasibly be readied in the next two years.
Not so much a blueprint as a wish-list, the 65-page plan calls for a new international airport in the Jordan Valley and new rail links to neighboring states, and proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors.
The Palestinian Authority which Fayyad heads is dependent on foreign assistance for most of its budget. A copy of the plan was obtained by Reuters ahead of publication.
The plan is short on detail, but setting out these objectives is a departure from Palestinian policy over the past 15 years, which focused exclusively on negotiations with Israel rather than building institutions...
On one level our reaction should be, "Good! What took you so long?" If this had been the attitide 70 years ago life would be quite different. The trouble will come with borders and Jerusalem (to name two), and those aren't small issues. And how are these issues going to be worked out? Will Obama use the international hammer to beat on the heads of Jews to accept overwhelming concessions in favor of a plan put forward by a man who represents very little in the way of public support and who may be putting forth a "wish list" that never materializes -- that is undermined from the start by a society that is simply structurally predisposed to never being able to build. Will we end up seeing Israel weakened, marginalized, discredited on the international stage by its great Western ally, and all in all dragged down into the muck in the name of a liberal pipe-dream?
We wait and see.
Update: Carl comments here: A 'Palestinian state' by 2011?
Barry Rubin asks the obvious question: Palestinian Prime Minister: We'll Build State Institutions in Two Years. What Have You Been Doing for the last 15? He also answers it.
