Watching the action unfold at the UN yesterday was a surreal experience, living as I do in a country that appears ever more isolated from the majority opinion of world nations.  Granted, Mahmoud Abbas was preaching to the converted, but his performance was surprisingly animated and commendable for a man who has repeatedly taken the art of dithering and indecisiveness to a new level. 


Watching the repeated standing ovations during his speech as he presented the Palestinian request to be given full recognition and statehood, you had to be impressed with the initiative the Palestinians have stolen from Israel in presenting their case, an initiative that was taken some years ago and to which (on the whole), successive Israeli governments have failed to respond
and present their case properly to the world.

 
The stubborn, short-sighted, and indolent Netanyahu administration has proved to be the most intransigent and regressive in blocking all realistic attempts at dialogue, believing as they do that ‘we are right, and they are wrong, so there’s nothing to talk about’. While Israel has a genuine case in many aspects of the argument, the Palestinians, presenting themselves very successfully as the innocents in this scenario, have clearly stolen a march and are overwhelmingly perceived as the good guys. Israel is seen as a bruising bully who deserves to get a bloody nose – if not more.

 
Netanyahu’s all too late response and his reliance on the US veto has done Israel no good it all. It has also done massive damage to the US, damage compounded by Netanyahu’s cringingly embarrassing “badge of  honour”comment to Barak Obama, after the US president had made it clear to the UN that he only sees a negotiated settlement as being the true route to peace, and that a unilateral declaration by the Palestinians is doomed to failure. That may well be true, but Netanyahu’s comment was cynically designed to paint Obama into a corner and outrage the Arab world. Obama had a fixed expression on his face when those words were spoken, and I’d like to bet ‘large’ that away from the public gaze Obama had harsh words with the Israeli PM about that exchange.

 
The argument appears to have been well and truly won by the Palestinians because Israel has ridiculously refused to robustly defend itself and point out the following; that the UN would be authorizing the creation (for the very first time in history) of a country that still has not given up on the  total destruction of its neighbour; whose government in Gaza (a government that rules, in the words of Abbas’ Fatah party “following a violent coup d’etat”), is supporting Al Qaeda, refuses to recognise the legitimacy of a two-state solution, denies the Holocaust ever happened, and has fired thousands of missiles into Israel with the intent to kill indiscriminately since Israel left the territory and gave them a chance to prove whether or not they have genuine peace aspirations.

 
Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah government in the West Bank, is no saint. He has denied the Holocaust, was (and still is) a major force in the PLO, (particularly at the time of many terrorist atrocities), and there are masses of question marks over human rights abuses within his Palestinian   Authority. That said, these days he remains a voice for calm amongst his people and has skilfully distracted world attention away from the hatred between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. The two factions despise each other so much that none other than Al Jazeera reported late last night that in Gaza, Hamas was furious with the ovation given Abbas’ speech and ordered all public television broadcasts to be cut. The sight of their arch-enemy (who they have  cleverly sought not to undermine at this point to further their own ends), getting a rapturous reception at the UN was more than they could bear! According to Al Jazeera, anyone caught watching the broadcast in a public place ended up doing so at the risk of being spirited away by Hamas thugs.



Whilst a deal with Fatah and the recognition of the Palestinians on the West Bank is necessary, (indeed I would very strongly argue is not before time), it is incumbent on the world to realize that Mahmud Abbas, in a desperate bid to gain ground on the issue has made a fatal mistake in getting back into bed with the Islamic fanatic that are Hamas. He will never be able to control them and they have cleverly used him as a pawn to further their own means. There were no Hamas officials sitting in the Palestinian ranks at the UN; even if he had wanted them there they would not have gone as they believe a two-state solution is treachery. In their view there should only be a one state solution – Palestine, at the expense of the existence of Israel and the lives of Israel’s citizens!

 
But Netanyahu’s government and PR have failed to sufficiently draw attention to the massive chasm within the ranks of the Palestinians and  have granted them an open goal in portraying themselves as united and prepared to work together for peace. If Bibi (Netanyahu) was clever, or if he had not so cynically saddled himself with so many loony right-wing coalition partners, he  could have so easily exposed the myth of the Palestinian argument by offering a three-state solution. Recognising a Palestinian state on the West Bank, but refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza, would have forced the Palestinians hatred of each other out into the open and exposed their argument of a united people as a phoney. 

 
But he hasn’t, and the consequences of the US veto and Israel’s perception on the world stage as the oppressive bully mean that the reaction to a failed bid (for the time being) for statehood at the UN could well spark a significant downward spiral of violence in this region. To save the day Bibi must swallow his pride, turn his back on the fanatics within his own government and reach out to Abbas. He should stop building in the West Bank, and offer a real deal to those Palestinians in that area who most certainly deserve a state of their own. In return, Abbas must confirm that he and his people in the West Bank will turn their back on violence, will completely disassociate themselves from the terror regime in Gaza, will fully recognize Israel’s right to exist, and together embrace peace and isolate and expose the Iranian-backed Hamas as the true force of evil that stops a deal being done.



It’s a massive wish-list I know, and the odds of this or something similar being offered by Netanyahu are miniscule, but it seems to me the only way to move things forward and avoiding a violent confrontation or all-out war.


 
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