and pursues disaster ..
Serially wrong-headed
1/ It is not possible for Israel to have seized and occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 6-Day War of June 1967 for the simple reason that they were not Palestinian territories. The proof is that the PLO manifesto of 1964, the Palestinian National Charter, did not claim either territory. In fact, article 24 of the Charter specifically disclaimed both.
2/ Nor did the territories belong to Jordan and Egypt. Instead, they had illegally occupied them during the illegal invasion of Israel by five Arab armies in 1948 – in total violation of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.
3/ The attribution of the territories to the Palestinians by the UN, ICJ and many others, was based on what was for many a well-meaning but mistaken belief that a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip would end the conflict. The Palestinian claim to the whole territory of Israel was ignored.
4/ In fact, neither the UN nor the ICJ have undertaken any due-diligence into Palestinian intentions to test if they aligned with their vision of a solution to the conflict. Nor have they produced even a half-decent legal case in support of Palestinian sovereignty. The recent ICJ Advisory Opinion presented a political opinion as if it were a legal determination. This maneuver entirely ignored Israel’s legal claims.
5/ But Israel’s legal claims are not a secret. They are anchored in the post-First World War settlement enshrined in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, continued in Article 80 of the UN Charter, with territory defined by the customary international law of uti possidetis juris to include the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
The insurmountable obstacle to peace
6/ All this is studiously disregarded by the UN, ICJ and others who still promote the vision that a Palestinian state is the solution to the conflict. Yet to date, none of them have been able to answer a simple question, how can a Palestinian state intent on destroying Israel possibly produce a successful 2-state solution?
7/ Avoiding the obvious conclusion that the insurmountable obstacle to any peaceful solution to the conflict is the Palestinian aim of destroying Israel, the equally obvious solution is to convince or coerce the Palestinians to jettison the Palestinian National Charter and demand they abandon the whole eliminationist idea.
8/ For decades the UN has known of the open and explicit intentions of the PLO, and latterly the PA and Hamas, to eliminate Israel. The UN has also known of the same intentions from Iran, Hezbollah and others. Further, in the very first Article of the UN Charter, its main purpose is stated to be to maintain international peace and security and . . . take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace (para 1).
9/ Yet instead of even the slightest attempt to implement this core foundational aspiration, the UN has steadfastly maintained its three Noes regarding Israel:
- No solidarity or support for Israel faced with serial threats to its existence.
- No condemnation or even criticism of those threats,
- No demand or pressure that these threats be abandoned.
How to reverse this situation
10/ The composition of the UN is now so democratically degraded by non-democratic regimes that for many of these states, and those they influence, the termination of Jewish self-determination is a desirable outcome and not a moral, humanitarian or legal problem. This makes the UN a dangerous threat to Israel.
11/ This will be demonstrated yet again in early June with the UN Conference to implement a Palestinian state. Following the Conference, the pressure on Israel will continue to mount. Therefore, Israel urgently needs an ambitious strategy to deal with this – and beyond. For a political initiative of this kind, see my online pamphlet A 3-Step Israeli UN Action Plan.