How Not to Play Peacemaker (10 Reasons Why Europe Should Reject the Palestinian Statehood)

Foreign Policy ^ | SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 | AMOS YADLIN, ROBERT SATLOFF

[nickcarraway]

10 reasons why Europe should reject the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.

This week, Palestinian leaders will attempt to bypass peace talks with Israel by appealing to the United Nations for recognition as a member state. European countries are reportedly divided on whether to support the Palestinians' effort or to side with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which opposes the idea as a threat to the concept of direct negotiations as the best way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

To offer guidance to their fellow Europeans, like Moses descending from Mount Sinai, come a pair of the continent's leading lights -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari and former EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana -- who penned a Sept. 16 New York Times op-ed offering 10 reasons why Europe should support the statehood bid. Amid the dozens of op-eds that have appeared on the issue, the Ahtisaari-Solana essay stands out as an exemplar of wise men both offering bad arguments and ignoring unpleasant realities.

Hamas, for example, makes no appearance in their essay, despite the fact that its influence hovers above Palestinian politics. The authors say they are eager to endorse the peacemaking and state-building efforts of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but they skirt the fact that Abbas's strategy -- as he argued in his own May 17 New York Times op-ed -- is based on a commitment to "unity," code for reconciling his Fatah movement with the radical Islamist organization that controls a large slice of Palestinian territory and is opposed to Israel's very existence.

[SMARTY]

How can the Palestinians demand membership in the UN WHILE refusing to recognize ALL members?

What is the UN worth if this is allowed?

[Wuli]

Europe and the U.S. need to abandon the Palestinians to themselves, telling them it is up to them and them alone to make an agreement with Israel.

European and U.S. efforts have not failed.

They were always one sided efforts, being put in charge of pressuring Israel to give something that the Palestinians wanted and could not get by their own efforts at the negotiating table.

Those efforts did achieve more negotiating and they did bring about genuine offers from Israel, offers with substantial concessions from Israel.

It was never enough because Palestinian leaders always wanted so much and wanted it more than they wanted Peace.

Until Palestinian leaders want Peace most of all and want it more than anything else, they will have neither a viable state nor Peace.

[DarkWaters]

How many European countries are there with large Muslim populations? That will be the number of reasons why they will vote yes.