2012: "Year of Pressure on Israel"

 

.... 2012 "will be the start of an unprecedented diplomatic campaign on the part of the Palestinian leadership, and it will be a year of pressure on Israel that will put it under a real international siege," said Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath, according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry document.

"The campaign will be similar to the one waged against apartheid in South Africa."

According to information that has reached Israel, the Palestinians are considering several steps as part of their campaign:

* Asking the UN Security Council in February to pass a resolution that would condemn settlement construction and impose international sanctions on Israel. If a resolution were brought to a vote, all Security Council members other than the United States would be expected to vote in favor.

* Urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to try Israel for war crimes related to Operation Cast Lead. If that fails, Palestinian officials are likely to encourage Palestinian citizens to file lawsuits against Israel in Western courts.

* Pushing for the implementation the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that ban the construction of communities and transfer of populations in occupied territory. The Palestinians have been trying for some time now to persuade the Swiss government to convene the signatories on the document for a special debate on the subject of applying the Geneva Convention in the West Bank.

* Asking the UN General Assembly or the UN Human Rights Council to send an international fact-finding committee to look into the settlement issue.

* Renewing efforts in the UN Security Council to secure full-membership status for Palestine, or asking the UN General Assembly for status as a nonmember state. A similar move was suspended last October after UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, accepted Palestine as a member, in response to which Israel froze Palestinian tax revenues.

* Organizing mass rallies against Israel in the West Bank, as part of a non-violent popular uprising. In reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal, said the two movements would focus their activities on a popular uprising in an effort to draw international attention to the Israeli occupation.

The diplomatic campaign is expected to begin January 26, which marks the end of the three-month period the Quartet alloted to Israel and the Palestinian Authority for resuming talks and presenting substantive proposals on borders and security arrangements.

The Palestinians agreed not to take any unilateral steps in international forums before that date.

No breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian talks is expected before then, according to an Israeli source who met recently with several senior Palestinian officials.

In an interview Saturday with Palestinian television, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said that if the Quartet failed in its efforts to renew talks between Israel and the Palestinians before January 26, "all options will be open" as far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned....

 

Note: Yesterday palistinians in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel. B"H, It exploded in an open area near Sderot; there were no injuries or damage.

And HAMAS is in Turkey for "official meeting" with the Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Hamas "prime minister" departed on his first official visit outside of Gaza since 2007 last week. He left the Strip through Rafah Crossing and is expected to also visit Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Tunisia and Bahrain.

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

The Ha'aretz story makes it sound as if the Palestinians will be acting alone. We should only be so lucky. This destroy-Israel campaign will enlist the best efforts not just of the Palestinians, but of every Jew-loathing, Israel-detesting Leftie on the face of the globe. What'll be especially interesting to watch is how much support this new jihadi strategy receives from the Obama administration in an election year. Will the One become a full-throttle pressurizer of Israel -- or will he temporarily mute his anti-Israel advocacy so as to curry favor with Jewish voters. For that matter, how many Jewish voters will care?

[scp]

(Assuming that the U.S. elections take place normally, and assuming that an American transition of power actually does occur...) Their window of opportunity is coming to a close--and they know it. So they make this push now.

[scp]

(plagiarized) GENESIS 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the [AMERICANS] /is/ not yet full.