Palestine WILL become a lost cause unless…..
The headline over my last post on 29 December was For the occupied and oppressed Palestinians UN means Useless Nations. The following day the Security Council itself confirmed my analysis by refusing to consider a resolution submitted on behalf of the Palestinians calling for an end to Israeli occupation within three years. Lawyer John V Whitbeck then hit the nail on the head with the statement that the Security Council had demonstrated that “it is as much of a whorehouse as the U.S. Congress.” In this post I am going to suggest what I think must now happen if Palestine is not to become a lost cause.
My starting point is that the Palestinians have nothing concrete to gain from seeking to advance their cause through the International Criminal Court (ICC). Even IF it did determine that Israel (as well as Hamas for “balance”) had a case to answer for war and other crimes, the Zionist state’s leaders would ignore the court’s findings and the U.S. would prevent action to call and hold Israel to account.
Although they have the right in international law to resort to force to resist occupation, the Palestinians also have nothing to gain and much more to lose from violence. Palestinian violence on a significant scale would give Israel’s leaders the pretext to speed up their ethnic cleansing programme and even, perhaps, to go for a final ethnic cleansing.
So what must happen if the dynamics of the conflict are to be changed to give the Palestinians real hope that their almost super human steadfastness, their refusal to surrender on Zionism’s terms, will deliver them an acceptable amount of justice?
The assumption on which my answer is based is that only the major powers have the leverage to cause Israel’s leaders to end their defiance of international law and become serious about peace on terms the Palestinians could accept.
The problem is that governments are not going to use this leverage unless and until they are PUSHED to do so by public opinion – by manifestations of real democracy (citizen concern and care) in action.
In America for example, and as I put it in my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, nothing is going to change unless and until members of Congress are more frightened of offending their voters than they are of offending the Zionist lobby and its allies.
According to a poll for the Brookings Institution last November, U.S. public opinion is shifting. When asked for their preferred solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, 34% of those Americans polled said their government should push for one state with equal citizenship. That was up from 24% the previous year.
Also worthy of note is that among those who support a two state solution, 66% said they would support one state if two states were not possible.
The key question is this.
What can be done to give greater and unstoppable momentum to the pushing process underway in America and Europe to cause governments to use the leverage they have to end Israel’s defiance of international law and oppression of the Palestinians?
In my view what is needed most of all is the dissolution of the Palestine Authority and handing back to Israel complete responsibility and accountability for occupation.
This would impose significant economic, security and other burdens on Israel and its leaders would respond in the only way they know how – with more and more brutal repression of the occupied Palestinians. Yes, that would mean more suffering of all kinds for them but it would also an add fuel to the slow burning, global fire of anti-Israelism.
In other words, the more an arrogant, sickenly self-righteous and brutal Israel demonstrated its contempt for international law and its rejection of the Palestinian claim for justice, the more the pushing process required to cause governments of the major powers to act would gather momentum.
For their part the occupied and oppressed Palestinians could help to sustain this momentum with peaceful demonstrations across the occupied West Bank and throughout the Gaza Strip open prison camp. For maximum impact in Europe and America I think the demonstrations should be silent with the message of the demonstrators conveyed by placards held aloft. The messages would include “End the occupation!” and “We want our freedom!”
Something like that on at least a weekly basis would convey a powerful message to the outside world and all the more so if the IDF and armed illegal Jewish settlers sought to break up peaceful and silent Palestinian demonstrations with tear gas and bullets.
Then there’s the question of Palestinian leadership. After the dissolution of the PA who could provide it and what form should it take?
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