Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that 2014 could be a important year in the Middle East peace process, if both sides are willing to take bold steps and refrain from actions that undermine progress in the peace talks that resumed last year.
That, if you didn’t already know, is a reference to the porch in Mrs. Levy’s apartment in East Jerusalem. She just received a permit to close that porch, despite the damage that this act would cause universal peace. Because any construction, anything at all, taken up by Jews in areas the world considers “Arab land,” is an attack on the peace efforts.
Shame on you, Mrs. levy.
It’s difficult to find consistencies in decisions made by UN officials these days. If I didn’t know better, I’d be forced to conclude that they believe the Jews are the source of all the trouble in the Near East, while the Palestinian statehood is a magic cure that will surely usher in a heavenly choir, angels, a second coming and, possibly, Cadillacs for everybody.
On January 16, 2014, the United Nations launched the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with senior officials urging that the observance be used “to redouble efforts to achieve a durable peace between Israel and Palestine.”
“The coming year will be crucial to achieving the two-State solution,” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in his remarks to the UN General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
I wasn’t aware there was a special committee on just those inalienable rights. You’d think other groups would want one as well. The Basque, the Kurds, to name just two peoples, would probably want such a committee, too. Look it up – there are no committees.
If the Kurds or the Basque had any sense, they would figure out a way to show that the reason for their repression are the Jews. Then you’ll see how, overnight, they’ll become everybody’s cause célèbre at the UN.
Also, not to nit-pick, but didn’t UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova on the very same week declare that the Simon Wiesenthal Center exhibit titled “The People, the Book, the Land — 3,500 years of ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel,” would be postponed indefinitely, so as not to damage the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
How can the universal celebration of the Palestinian people’s rights to the land be a boost to the peace talks, while the celebration of the Jewish people’s rights to the same land be a talks killer?
Here’s how: according to Eliasson, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are working hard towards a peaceful, comprehensive settlement of all permanent status issues, which means, so goes the official UN announcement, a settlement that ends the occupation that started in 1967 and which would end the conflict.
It also means, goes the announcement, securing an independent, viable and sovereign State of Palestine living alongside a secure State of Israel, where each side recognizes the other’s legitimate rights.
How do they know?
The current situation is that a UN member, the State of Israel, is in negotiations with representatives of a minority group living in an area that’s legally no man’s land administered by the Israeli Army. Maybe they’ll decide to have two states, maybe a Palestinian autonomy, maybe Israel will offer everybody west of the Jordan River full citizenship. It’s a negotiation.