Abu Mazen’s insane bid
Il Giornale, November 25th, 2012
After the thunder of the weapons, it’s the turn of a real, fierce diplomacy war. Abu Mazen might be the victor, yet it will be a losing battle for him. The president (whose term expired years ago, hence illegitimate) refuses to meet Netanyahu, erases Israel off the maps in the school books, opposed any completion of negotiations even with Olmert and Tzipi Livni; despite all of this, he is still considered significantly moderate. So he decided to go to the UN on November 29th, anniversary of the 1947’s partition, to ask the Assembly for a unilateral recognition of a “Palestinian non member state”.
He wants to get without negotiating what he refused to negotiate to grant either Jerusalem and his Ramallah safe borders. The 1967 borders without land exchanges would be exactly all it takes to target planes landing in Ben Gurion airport, and to split Jerusalem; plus this would invite 700 thousand Palestinians resident in Lebanon and as many resident in Syria to take the road to Ramallah, with what intentions you’ll surely guess. Intifada would be assured. Let’s even assume that Abu Mazen will pledge to keep the status quo for the time being; but whom does he represent, considered that Hamas disavows him and won the elections in the major West Bank cities? Abu Mazen wants to regain internal as well as international influence after being stripped by the Hamas-led war.
But the world would come out of it split and the UN devastated, considered that Obama will oppose it, along with Germany, and perhaps the United Kingdom and other European States. Plus this is not the way to tackle one of the most entangled matters in the world: it requires sitting down for a real negotiation. Hopefully Abu Mazen will realize that the best victories are won at the negotiation table, and that his rejection has no other reason but seeking to triumph in the Islamic world. The illusion that voting in favor of this resolution or to abstain means supporting the moderate palestinians is a contradiction in terms. A unilateral recognition would wreck negotiations, Abu Mazen, and the UN.