3 UN speeches and we're further from peace than ever before
Obama, Abbas, and Netanyahu's speeches at the UN went from bad to worse and indicate that a peaceful resolve to the conflict remains as elusive as ever.
By ALON LIELObama Netanyahu Abbas 311(photo credit: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)
Watching the three speeches delivered at the UN this past weekend—that of US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, I got the distinct feeling that we are further away from peace than ever before.Obama's speech came as a surprise. Recalling Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, the President began with an encouraging message that expressed how the great nation of America stands behind all those in the Middle East that are fighting (either violently or peacefully) for their democratic rights against their despotic rulers. The USA is rooting for the rebels and fully in support of the evolving Arab Spring.At this point, I was truly moved.But at the mention of the word "now," the entire nature of the speech changed. The "now" referred to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There was no mention of an Arab Spring in this conflict. The US is quite clearly siding with Israel. The Palestinians cannot hope to fight for their rights; first, they have to have them approved by Israel - which will do nothing until it secures its own (legitimate) security rights.So, for you poor Palestinians, Obama's message to you is, embrace whatever Israel chooses to give you and shut up.Abbas' speech didn't exactly inspire hope either. A few weeks ago, upon reading an item in the Israeli press about the settlers who are training dogs to counter the Palestinian rebels, I was immediately reminded of the apartheid dogs in Soweto. The photos of the South African dogs attacking blacks in Soweto had shocked the world back then. In an attempt to emphasize just how efficient the dogs are, the American-Israeli dog trainer was even quoted as saying, "Every one of my dogs is worth ten Israeli soldiers."For his own part, Abu Mazen did not overlook this news story and did his best to use it in an attempt to deck a hard public relations punch by comparing Israel to an apartheid regime. The fact that the dogs are used by unauthorized settlers and not by the Israeli army did not seem to make the slightest difference to him. The Palestinian leader clearly feels that it is far simpler to portray Israel as an apartheid state to the world then to get the Netanyahu-Lieberman team to agree to a Palestinian state - an assumption that sadly, may not be too far from the truth.Finally, it was Netanyahu's turn to take the podium: Netanyahu began his speech by attacking the UN, and quoting the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he called the UN "a house of lies." Little wonder then, that the UNGA holds so much love for Netanyahu and Israel.Later on in his speech, Bibi did a marvelous job of describing in detail the roots of the Israeli narrative, while conveniently forgetting that in the last few decades it is the Palestinian narrative that captures the world's ears and hearts, and that the part of the narrative relating to the occupation (in particular, the settlements) is simply an unmarketable product.
Netanyahu is a great orator and a fantastic spin doctor, but his eloquent rhetoric often has little connection to reality. One minor small example was his call for Abu Mazen, purported by Bibi to be "in the same building," to meet him in New York on Friday. It's safe to assume that the Prime Minister of Israel was aware—as indeed all of us were—that Abu Mazen was in fact no longer in the building and was actually on his way to spend the weekend in Jordan as the guest of King Abdullah II. Yet an insignificant factor such as that didn't allow the Prime Minister to ruin a good spin.
So where does this leave us? As I see it, there are only two options left; the first being a vote on the UN recognition of Palestine, and the second being a collapse of the Palestinian Authority. What is certain is that as of now, without UN recognition, we are not going to see an Israeli-Palestinian agreement anytime soon.The writer, a former chargé d’affaires in Turkey and ambassador to South Africa, was director-general of the Foreign Ministry between 2000 and 2001. Today he lectures at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
