(CNN) -- The Palestinians are seeking to upgrade their status at the United Nations Thursday, through a vote in the General Assembly as to whether "Palestine" will be granted recognition as a "non-member state."
The vote, which many observers believe will pass, would amount to an implicit recognition of Palestinian statehood from the international body. It would strengthen their chances of joining U.N. agencies and the International Criminal Court in order to attempt to exert international pressure on Israel.
Rick Richman at Commentary:
.... The irony is that between 2000 and 2008, the Palestinians received three formal offers of a state, and rejected them all — the modern equivalent of the Three Nos. Now one group of Palestinians seeks UN recognition as a “non-member state,” when they fail to qualify as a state at all, and they ignore the fact they could already have been a member-state three times over (or more), had they simply said yes.
[....]
Once again, “Palestine” is all set to be a failed state.... Article 10 of the Montevideo Convention provides that the “primary interests of states is the conservation of peace.” The Palestinian gambit at the UN is not intended to produce peace, but to provide a platform for law-fare. It will do nothing to bring the Palestinians closer to the state they could have had long ago, if a state were really what they wanted, and it will in fact put peace further away.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning ... at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, made the following statement:
"Israel is prepared to live in peace with a Palestinian state, but for peace to endure, Israel’s security must be protected. The Palestinians must recognize the Jewish State and they must be prepared to end the conflict with Israel once and for all. None of these vital interests, these vital interests of peace, none of them appear in the resolution that will be put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel cannot accept it. The only way to achieve peace is through agreements that are reached by the parties directly; through valid negotiations between themselves, and not through UN resolutions that completely ignore Israel’s vital security and national interests. And because this resolution is so one-sided, it doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards.
As for the rights of the Jewish people in this land, I have a simple message for those people gathered in the General Assembly today: No decision by the UN can break the 4000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel."
Comments