A Palestinian State Saves All from Catastrophe

The dispossessed Palestinians deserve a state, but the stateless Palestinians deserve more than the leadership that leads them to plead for a state. Palestinian inability to explain to a complacent world the necessity and reasons for establishing a state on land, which has been owned for generations by Palestinians, is constituted with Palestinians, will be governed by Palestinians, will be free of oppression by an alien authority, and devoid of submission to foreign elements jars the senses. World inability to realize that the establishment of a Palestinian state leads to the defining issue and irresolution of the defining issue will bring horror and grief to their lives freezes all thought.

If the United Nations accepts the Palestinian Authority petition for recognition as a state, then Israel will graduate from occupying another people's land to occupying another people's nation. A land is vague. A nation is concrete. Can anyone argue that it is illegal to have foreign soldiers in a nation without consent from the leadership of the nation? Is a country permitted to send its military and citizens into another country, use them to seize land, direct commerce, construct its own infrastructure, and perform self-aggrandizing police duties in the other state? With the trappings of a state, the Palestinians will have a solid legal means to evict the usurpers and initiate a trend - the beginning of a retreat by a clique of militarists, virulent nationalists, and subdued racists who learned that absurd distortions of ancient history, mendacity, clever public relations, expressions of victimization, and self-pity could easily convince the world that they deserved extensive territory and domination of the Middle East.

What if the Palestinians are refused a state, a more likely scenario? Will that mean that their ambition to live with dignity, certainty and sensibility within their own defined territory, and their aspirations for nationhood will be jeopardized forever? Will a United Nations refusal to recognize Palestinian rights be a veto of these rights and a semi-permanent decision to never again debate the issue? Probably so. The case might become an all or nothing proposition for the Palestinians.

Considering the possible derogatory effect of the Palestinian petition to establish a state, what else can the Palestinians do to advance their cause if they withdraw the petition? The answer is absolutely nothing. All avenues to free expression have been blocked and they can look forward to either passively accepting all Israel initiatives and, in effect, surrendering themselves to fate, or fighting with all means until the body count becomes unbearable to one or both sides.

By analyzing the three possible directions that the Palestinians can pursue to achieve reasonable objectives, the world community can decide its commitment in obtaining a proper decision. It's a no brainer. Establishing a Palestinian state starts a process to resolve a dangerous crisis. Not allowing the petition brings enormous death and destruction, and not only to the Israelis and Palestinians residing in the Levant; include other parts of the world. Innocent, manipulated and self-destructive populations still don't recognize that the continuous Israeli belligerent incursions into Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank demonstrate that Israel's leaders have no regard for lives beyond the borders they govern, and will use any weapons, including nuclear, to achieve their objectives. Talk to survivors of the U.S.S. Liberty, a U.S. naval vessel sailing in international waters when attacked by Israel aircraft during the 1967 Middle East war, to the American parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer, or the tens of thousands of persons around the world who each day suffer vicious abuse from Israeli apologists for only one reason - they oppose Israel's policies - and learn that nobody will be safe during the future aggressions.

Patiently, but inexorably, Israel's direct and indirect operations have reduced possible antagonists to impotence - Jordan, Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya. Slowly and inexorably, nations have reconstituted themselves and posed renewed challenges - Lebanon, Egypt, and South Africa, with rumblings from Jordan and Iraq. Consider that deep antagonism to Israel inhabits entire Southeast Asia from Indonesia to India, Iran, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, parts of middle Africa, and several nations around the world, and Israel's attempts to consolidate its present position and continue its trajectory of land seizures will always encounter resistance. The nation will always be surrounded by enemies.

The new Egypt has violently expressed its aversion to previous arrangements with Israel. Expect either Israeli occupation or 'pacification' of the Sinai.

Turkey has re-evaluated its relationship with those who wave the Star of David flag. Actions to counter Israel's supremacist attitude will follow.

The Arab awakening is being transformed into a Muslim awakening. New governments in North Africa will contain elements of Radical Islam (Travelers to Tunisia personally inform of a Muslim religious re-awakening), and these elements will neither compromise a Muslim perspective on Jerusalem nor retreat from combating Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people.

Radical Islam is a growth industry, not unlike the growth of the Religious Right in the United States. Within Radical Islam, hundreds of thousands extremists exist; many prepared to make an ultimate sacrifice for their cause. Suppressing the extremists by self-constituted international policemen is an endless task, especially when the activities of the nations that provide the policemen encourage the formation of extremist elements and internationalization of their terrorism. By refusing to takes forcible actions that can halt continuous Israeli aggression in the Levant and by taking actions that deny legitimate Palestinian aspirations, the western powers subject Israel's population and themselves to suffer attacks for an eternity.

There is a larger danger. Violence sails along the winds of antagonism. One day an atom’s nucleus will burst, the winds will become radioactive, and particles of death will disperse themselves throughout the world. No doubt, when a Middle East antagonist faces extinction, and that will happen, that nation will use the nuclear alternative. Recognition of a Palestinian state initiates a reversal of the trend to the larger danger and saves all from catastrophe. What more can those who value life want for themselves and others?

Dan Lieberman is the editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter. His website articles have been read in more than 150 nations, while articles written for other websites have either appeared or been linked in online journals throughout the world. Many have served as teaching resources in several universities and several have become Internet classics, each attracting thousands of readers annually.

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