That news must hurt when you're a dyed-in-the-wool Israel-firster.
Avigdor Lieberman wasted no time trashing Sweden for becoming number 138.
Statehood can only come as the result of negotiations between the relevant parties, according to Lieberman. Of course! And another 50 years of negotiations will see the entire West Bank populated by Israeli settlers... and the Palestinian state will consist of... Gaza?
Not that this "recognition" means much of anything. The fact that Sweden is the first serious EU member to take this step perhaps bodes well for a future recognition by the big dogs like France and Germany, but under their present administrations they seem too busy implementing Washington's agenda vis-a-vis Islamic State and Ukraine to show much of an independent streak.
All this means for the time being is that PA bigwigs will be put up in better hotels on their interminable international travels, at least when they touch down in Sweden.
At the same time, when 138 countries, representing close to 90% of the world's population, recognize what Israel refuses to recognize, perhaps the writing is on the wall.
Showing posts with label Palestinian statehood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian statehood. Show all posts
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Can anybody get John Baird to shut the f@ck up?
Where are you, Rabbi Mendelsohn, now that we need you more than ever?
Your protege seems to have slipped his leash.
A week ago he was making a fool of himself at the General Assembly, wagging his finger at the PA for having the audacity to make a "unilateral" bid for statehood.
When Netanyahu announced 3000 new settler abodes the next day, Baird was initially muted in his response. But given a couple of days to see which way the wind was blowing, it was soon announced in the papers that Baird was "reprimanding" Israel about the new settlements.
Is there a serious person in the world who imagines that John Baird "reprimands" Israel?
But look here; now he's reprimanding Syria!
This no doubt has Assad quaking in his loafers... quaking with laughter perhaps!
Is there a serious person on this planet who imagines that the Syrians care what pronouncements come from the Canadians?
Enough! Please, Rabbi Mendelsohn, get this idiot under control. We're counting on you.
Your protege seems to have slipped his leash.
A week ago he was making a fool of himself at the General Assembly, wagging his finger at the PA for having the audacity to make a "unilateral" bid for statehood.
When Netanyahu announced 3000 new settler abodes the next day, Baird was initially muted in his response. But given a couple of days to see which way the wind was blowing, it was soon announced in the papers that Baird was "reprimanding" Israel about the new settlements.
Is there a serious person in the world who imagines that John Baird "reprimands" Israel?
But look here; now he's reprimanding Syria!
This no doubt has Assad quaking in his loafers... quaking with laughter perhaps!
Is there a serious person on this planet who imagines that the Syrians care what pronouncements come from the Canadians?
Enough! Please, Rabbi Mendelsohn, get this idiot under control. We're counting on you.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Does "statehood" allow Palestinians to take Israel to International Criminal Court?
Maybe and maybe not.
This op-ed in the Jerusalem Post seems to hedge its bets.
Looking on the bright side, they figure it would take a good ten years to have a case at the ICC get to a place where any senior IDF types or politicos would have to make travel plans.
A lot can happen in ten years.
This op-ed in the Jerusalem Post seems to hedge its bets.
Looking on the bright side, they figure it would take a good ten years to have a case at the ICC get to a place where any senior IDF types or politicos would have to make travel plans.
A lot can happen in ten years.
Canada takes pride of place in pantheon of pariah states
Canada's foreign minister went all the way to New York City today to castigate the UN for the unseemly spectacle of a vote on Palestinian statehood.
Canada joined international power-brokers Micronesia and the Marshal Islands in voting against today's resolution.
Those would more properly be termed pariah statelets, as they are essentially US protectorates and know it's always a good idea to vote with the big dog at the UN.
Nauru, Palau, Panama and the Czech Republic round out the list of countries that voted against the resolution.
Other than the tail and the dog of course.
Insofar as there are grounds for doubt about the wisdom of the resolution, it would be simple enough to abstain from voting, as 41 UN members did. But Canada went so much further, not only voting against, but sending Baird to New York to speak against it.
As for the speech itself, it was beyond ironic that Baird referenced UN resolution 242 at least four times in his speech. Has he even read resolution 242? Has he ever, in any venue, spoken out about the fact that resolution 242 lies dead and broken at the side of the road to peace?
No.
And his dismay over "unilateral" actions by one side or the other is curiously absent with respect to unilateral actions by Israel.
The ever-expanding settlements, an explicit violation of 242.
The "separation fence" or apartheid wall, take your pick.
The siege of Gaza.
The list of unilateral actions by Israel could go on and on, and Baird has managed to remain silent on every unilateral action until this one by the Palestinians.
Whatever credibility Canada's foreign policy may have once had is long gone.
Canada joined international power-brokers Micronesia and the Marshal Islands in voting against today's resolution.
Those would more properly be termed pariah statelets, as they are essentially US protectorates and know it's always a good idea to vote with the big dog at the UN.
Nauru, Palau, Panama and the Czech Republic round out the list of countries that voted against the resolution.
Other than the tail and the dog of course.
Insofar as there are grounds for doubt about the wisdom of the resolution, it would be simple enough to abstain from voting, as 41 UN members did. But Canada went so much further, not only voting against, but sending Baird to New York to speak against it.
As for the speech itself, it was beyond ironic that Baird referenced UN resolution 242 at least four times in his speech. Has he even read resolution 242? Has he ever, in any venue, spoken out about the fact that resolution 242 lies dead and broken at the side of the road to peace?
No.
And his dismay over "unilateral" actions by one side or the other is curiously absent with respect to unilateral actions by Israel.
The ever-expanding settlements, an explicit violation of 242.
The "separation fence" or apartheid wall, take your pick.
The siege of Gaza.
The list of unilateral actions by Israel could go on and on, and Baird has managed to remain silent on every unilateral action until this one by the Palestinians.
Whatever credibility Canada's foreign policy may have once had is long gone.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The resurrection of Ehud Olmert
Look who is emerging as the voice of reason in Israel's political landscape. None other than the guy who seemed so eminently forgettable, that everybody thought would spend at least a couple of months behind bars for that corruption hanky-panky, Ehud Olmert.
Ehud is remaking himself as the voice of moderation. He is the phoenix rising from the dust-bin of history.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Ehud has no problem whatsoever with the Abbas gambit at the UN.
"We have to support the moderates" he says.
Well, no kidding! This is the most profound revelation to strike the Middle East since Saint Paul's vision on the road to Damascus... oh, probably an unfortunate metaphor at this moment in history...
But he is absolutely right.
That's why I don't really get the anti-PA line coming from Hillary and a few other adherents of the anti-Palestinian hard line.
If you can't make a deal with Abbas, you'll never make a deal with anybody.
Is there still time for him to put together a list for January?
Ehud is remaking himself as the voice of moderation. He is the phoenix rising from the dust-bin of history.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Ehud has no problem whatsoever with the Abbas gambit at the UN.
"We have to support the moderates" he says.
Well, no kidding! This is the most profound revelation to strike the Middle East since Saint Paul's vision on the road to Damascus... oh, probably an unfortunate metaphor at this moment in history...
But he is absolutely right.
That's why I don't really get the anti-PA line coming from Hillary and a few other adherents of the anti-Palestinian hard line.
If you can't make a deal with Abbas, you'll never make a deal with anybody.
Is there still time for him to put together a list for January?
"Diplomatic terror" and the PA's UN canard
Tomorrow's vote on granting "state" status to the PA observer delegation at the UN is an exercise in imbecility from beginning to end.
As every serious person who follows these matters well understands, Mahmoud Abbas is America's bum-boy in Palestine.
While he's been "negotiating" a sovereign Palestinian state with Israel for the last eight years, the settler population in the occupied territories has doubled.
During those eight years the credibility and prestige of his Hamas rivals has blossomed.
But Israel and the Nations of Virtue claim that this empty UN gesture is some sort of "short-cut" that seeks to by-pass negotiations with Israel. Hence you see the spectacle of international lightweights like Canadian PM Harper waxing grave on how Canada cannot support any attempt to bypass negotiations.
What a crock of shit!
At no point in his tenure have the Nations of Virtue conceded a single hollow "victory" that Abbas could take to his people and show them that he's a serious champion of a Palestinian state.
That's no way to treat a bum-boy.
Meanwhile Hamas looks better and better to the Palestinian masses, because they're willing to take a beating every few years, and after every beating they come back stronger.
Unlike Abbas, who bows to every demand of his US masters and comes back looking weaker and weaker.
So his juvenile act of defiance, taking this issue to the UN General Assembly in defiance of his handlers, should be applauded and supported by Canada and the US and that handful of other countries that still deny the realities of the new Middle East.
Supporting Abbas in this vote is their last chance to make the PA look like a meaningful option.
The only other option is Hamas.
As every serious person who follows these matters well understands, Mahmoud Abbas is America's bum-boy in Palestine.
While he's been "negotiating" a sovereign Palestinian state with Israel for the last eight years, the settler population in the occupied territories has doubled.
During those eight years the credibility and prestige of his Hamas rivals has blossomed.
But Israel and the Nations of Virtue claim that this empty UN gesture is some sort of "short-cut" that seeks to by-pass negotiations with Israel. Hence you see the spectacle of international lightweights like Canadian PM Harper waxing grave on how Canada cannot support any attempt to bypass negotiations.
What a crock of shit!
At no point in his tenure have the Nations of Virtue conceded a single hollow "victory" that Abbas could take to his people and show them that he's a serious champion of a Palestinian state.
That's no way to treat a bum-boy.
Meanwhile Hamas looks better and better to the Palestinian masses, because they're willing to take a beating every few years, and after every beating they come back stronger.
Unlike Abbas, who bows to every demand of his US masters and comes back looking weaker and weaker.
So his juvenile act of defiance, taking this issue to the UN General Assembly in defiance of his handlers, should be applauded and supported by Canada and the US and that handful of other countries that still deny the realities of the new Middle East.
Supporting Abbas in this vote is their last chance to make the PA look like a meaningful option.
The only other option is Hamas.
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