Palestinian intransigence via UN must be opposed

By: Alan Levine

The Palestinian Authority will attempt Thursday to gain “non-member state observer status” at the United Nations General Assembly. The strategy--known as Unilateral Declaration of Independene (UDI)--would help efforts to delegitimize Israel and would further distance the parties from peace negotiations.

To voice your opinion, sign the petition calling on the UN Secretary General to oppose Palestinian unilateralism and to pressure the Palestinian leadership back to the negotiating table:  http://www.facebook.com/events/493195550703605/

• The UN bid, if successful, would cast Israel’s communities in disputed territory as a form of occupation of a UN member state. That would allow the Palestinian Authority to sue Israel in international forums, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, a goal Abbas has made clear he would pursue.

• This is the second time they have attempted to do so in as many years. Just as last year, the Palestinian Authority will enjoy support from a majority of the governments represented at the UN. Israel, however, has support from a “moral minority”: the majority of democracies oppose the unilateral Palestinian measure.

• The United States and Canada oppose the Palestinian gambit. They believe, as Israel does, that the creation of a Palestinian state can only be considered through peace negotiations with Israel; not through using the United Nations to circumvent negotiations.

• The move comes at a time in which Palestinian leaders have only negotiated with Israel one time in the past four years.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless constantly calls for direct negotiations. Acquiescence to the current Palestinian UN bid would reward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s unwillingness to reciprocate.

• Throughout history, only Israel has made true sacrifices for peace in the Middle East. It gave up land in 1979, 1993, 2000, 2005, and has offered to concede even more in 2008.  The regimes neighboring Israel have not reciprocated in any way. This Palestinian effort is another manifestation of the same dynamic in the Middle East.

• To illustrate this point, Hasbara Fellowships launched the "Friend Request Pending" campaign and this video in response to Palestinian UDI in 2011.