Opinion

September 14, 2011

Opinion: UN-vote

By Rob Eshman

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The threatened U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood has pundits and politicians apoplectic.

Me, not so much.

The Palestinian Authority plans to bring its bid for statehood and membership in the United Nations to the 15-member Security Council when the U.N. opens its new session on Sept. 20.  The United States has made clear that it will, at some cost to its own international standing, veto any attempt by the Palestinians to declare statehood outside the framework of a negotiated agreement with Israel.  

In the face of that veto, the Palestinians say, they will then proceed to take their bid to the U.N. General Assembly, where they will have enough votes to upgrade their status to enhanced observer as a nonmember state, which would entitle the Palestinians to pursue Israel in the International Criminal Court and, I suppose, give them free U.N. gym privileges.

The New York Times editorialized this week that such a vote would be “ruinous.” Ehud Barak proclaimed it would bring on a “tsunami” for Israel. Israeli hardliners and their American doppelgangers are threatening to cut off funds and suspend all agreements and further talks with the Palestinians. It seems I’m the lone voice wondering if this isn’t just a Levantine episode of “Glee,” where all the drama happens in the preparation for the big show, which, when it happens, will be just a show.

Because even after all the votes are cast, even after Israel and the United States, under that well-known Israel hater Obama  [ED NOTE: SEE BELOW FOR SARCASM EXPLANATION] , stand alone against the angry mobs, even after the full weight of Venezuela’s and Syria’s shocking “yes” votes are counted, what, if anything, will be substantially changed? Does Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seriously think you become a state just because Cameroon and Tobago say you are?

“The Palestinians have oversold what will happen in September,” Middle East expert Robert Malley said in a live-streamed discussion from the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. “And the Israelis themselves have over-dramatized it, and the U.S. has exaggerated the negative impact of what will happen at the U.N. This obsession with September is its biggest danger.”

In other words, there isn’t quite enough excitement happening in the Middle East these days, so everyone decided to make some more.

Malley heads the International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North African program. Its title for their report on the U.N. vote? “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

A near-complete breakdown in high-level relations between Israelis and Palestinians has brought them to the point that the easiest way for next-door neighbors to deal with each other is to travel 5,000 miles and speak through translators.  

That wouldn’t be so bad, except that the U.N. vote has provided an opportunity for all sorts of opportunists and ideologues to fan the conflict flames. 

Some, like Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), are eager to use it as an opportunity to deny the Palestinians all American aid. Likewise, in Israel, many politicians are threatening to cut off critical tax remissions to the Palestinian territories.

Those monies are what have been sustaining the kind of economic progress and security institutions that have been keeping the West Bank relatively prosperous and quiet and Israel relatively secure.

The left will use the vote as an opportunity to call for more sanctions and international isolation of Israel: How dare Israel vote against a people’s independence when the same body granted Israel its own independence in 1948? 

Here’s the difference: Back then, there was no state able to sit down to negotiate a conflict-ending agreement, as Israel is now capable of doing — and has put forward offers to do. Statehood without an agreement is a recipe for more conflict and tragedy. The world will be much better served when the two sides sit down face to face.

All the high-pitched predictions and threats, cooked up by people and groups with pre-existing agendas, may be more damaging than the vote itself.

“Whatever happens at the U.N., we can have a hard landing or we can have a soft landing,” Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow with the American Task Force on Palestine, said at the same Wilson conference. “Whatever is secured will be symbolic. The question is, what will life look like on the ground? The key is … not to undo economic progress and security gains. If there is retaliation to punish Palestinians, it will harm Israeli and American interests.”

So let’s all hold our tongues and our outrage and let the September/October folly pass.

The Middle East is undergoing sweeping changes, but certain fundamentals apply: The Palestinians can’t have freedom at the expense of Israeli security, and the Israelis can’t have security at the expense of Palestinian freedom.

At some point, the two sides will have to sit down and work out how this truth translates into a common future. The sides aren’t ready for that yet — it’s an ongoing shame, but it’s also the truth. In the meantime, there can be small gains in institution building, security building and even trust building. 

“The best we can hope for is to avoid a train wreck,” Malley said. “But the train wreck has been staring us in the face for years.”

A version of this article appeared in print.

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It hard not to respect and admire Rob. This is from someone who world view is very different from his. I see him as a member of the “still listening left,” a worthy moniker in the increasingly divided world in which we live. Rob is waiting for the “But” so I will not disappoint him. Should I be comforted by Rob not be too worried about the Palestine UN vote? If memory serves he wasn’t that worried about the Arab Spring either. It makes me wonder if he is still optimistically waiting for that dividend check from Bernie Madoff.

Shabbat Shalom

Rafi Guber

Comment by Rafael Guber on 9/16/11 at 6:19 am

Rafael, Rob is not concerned about the Arab hate for Israel nearly as much as he is concerend about Glenn Beck and people of the Right.

Comment by Mini on 9/16/11 at 10:50 am

boy that pot keeps stirring & stirring and heating and heating soon with the help of our “friends” the egyptians and the turks it will begin to boil over!!!

Comment by NateDuhGrate!!! on 9/16/11 at 5:25 pm

How can a country who uses military aggression against another be considered for UN membership? The UN is supposed to be a voluntary group of countries who cooperate and help each other for the common good of all, not attack another member. What in the UN Charter permits one member to attack another member? However, if attacked, the other member is permitted to defend itself.

Comment by Rich Mann on 9/16/11 at 5:48 pm

NUANCE NO STRONG SUIT

Mr. Eshman, tongue in cheek comment re: “...that well known Israel hater Obama..”
unfortunate in this context. Obama’s conduct in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
indicates solely that he is not the type of U.S. presidential supporter to which the
State of Israel had become accustomed. That’s the problem with Obama in nearly every category; he just fails to measure-up. The sooner yourself and other TJJ opinion-writers get it, the better for determining your product a reasonably fair arbiter. And….how’s about that source for the alleged US. 3.8 trillion war-costs since 9/11?  Aunty Mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 9/17/11 at 8:40 am

Rob be honest and tell your readers that Malley is the one-time National Security Council staffer who argued ˆ contrary to lead Middle East envoy Ambassador Dennis Ross and many others ˆ that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was right to reject the 2000 and 2001 Israeli-U.S. offers of a West Bank and Gaza Strip state, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, because they somehow short-changed the PA

      Likewise you neglected to tell us that the International Crisis Group is unded by billionaire George Soros, who views Israel as a main obstacle to Arab reform and laments close U.S.-Israel ties.

Further , Malley’s advice (documented) to Hamas encouraged their rocket attacks on Israel.

Comment by LT COL HOWARD on 9/17/11 at 2:23 pm

Of course Abbas and others have already announced the the new Palestinain state will be Judenfrei (no surprise there) but also Palestinian refugee free (e.g. no Palestinians from outside the West Bank will be allowed in, and amazingly no Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West bank will be made citizens.  They want them to be used as pawns in the neverending war against Israel.  They will never give up trying to destroy us.  That’s reality, face it.

Comment by george on 9/17/11 at 7:27 pm

The UN was a good idea that was worth a shot in 1946. Now, its a vote counting body that is the same as the mafia commission. It should be closed up and the land used has a park

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 9/18/11 at 8:45 pm

As I read Rob’s piece, I thought it was unfair to claim that “Obama hates Israel,” this president is too stupid to hate Israel.  He thinks he is being Israel’s friend when encourages the armistace, suspending the ‘67 hostilities, to be violated by the Palestinians.  He really believes that he can feed the beast with Israeli lives and the beast will be happy.  What a dope!!  The president has demonstrated that intelligence without wisdom is dangerous, just as President Carter demonstrated.

Comment by Aaron on 9/19/11 at 2:24 am

Evidently my attempt at sarcasm failed miserably.  There is no evidence to support the idea that Obama is a “well-known Israel hater.”  The idea is popular in some Jewish circles. I find it so outlandish, especially in the context of the upcoming UN vote, that I thought I’d poke fun at it. 

For the record, I do not believe Obama is an Israel hater.  His administration’s level of military and intelligence cooperation and diplomatic support for Israel, as well as its focus on thwarting Iranian nuclear ambitions—not to mention Obama’s much praised rescue of Israelis in Cairo two weeks ago— have earned it the accolades of non-partisan Israeli analysts.

Comment by Rob Eshman on 9/19/11 at 12:12 pm

Rob I don’t believe Obama wants to destroy Israel I know that certain of his key advisers want to & they have influenced his thinking on what to do.

I don’t believe you want to destroy Israel, but I believe that you are deluded & have the arrogance of a very bright guy who thinks he is brighter than he is.

There is a lot of good stuff out there, very little of which appears in JJ. Today for example I offer:

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com/

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0911/tobin.php3?printer_friendly

Jewish Ideas Daily <editors@jewishideasdaily.com>

Jewish Ideas Daily: Settling for Statehood

http://www.jidaily.com/DNt5A/e

http://www.israpundit.com

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 9/19/11 at 12:56 pm

Rob:
I also believe Obama’s not an Israel hater…perhaps an Israel “Not-so Liker”!!!
...but as a life long Democrat, and I did vote for obama, I honestly believe that he is only doing what he has to to keep the Jewish vote with the Democrats…in other words for political expediency.

I read once that when trouble arose in the middle east… Ronald Reagan’s (& Bill Clinton’s) first question was “What did the Arabs do now??”
On the other hand Richard Nixon’s (& Jimmie Carter’s) first reaction was “What did the Jews do now”?

Ain’t no love lost there!!!

Comment by Stormin'Norm on 9/19/11 at 4:03 pm

Rob: ...I read Obama has a Passover Service for his Jewish staff…I think that’s great…but Obama also had Bibi Netanyahoo cooling his heels in an outer office while Barack eat lunch alone..and then Bibi was told to leave by a side door!!!

Even Anti-Semitic Tricky Dick would never have tried that crap with a world leader…and when has Obama visited Jerusalem last???!!!...He certainly was a high profile guest in a couple of muslim capitals!!!

I really dislike most of what republicans stand for…but Israel means a great deal to me…and that may just force our family to switch sides in the next election.

Comment by stormin'Norm on 9/19/11 at 4:08 pm

@stormin’Norm   I was a Democrat ever since the age of 10 when I carried nominating petitions around to get signatures for candidates. (It was illegal but in Brooklyn if it was for the Democrats who cared?)Over the years the Democratic Party has left me. joined John Kerry has advocated closer relationships with Syria, as has Nancy Pelosi.

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 9/19/11 at 6:01 pm

Continued (700 character limit makes any real intelligent conversation Difficult)

I wonder what the White House response will be to this:The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN. In a widely publicized event, the PA had Latifa Abu Hmeid lead the procession to the UN offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 9/19/11 at 6:05 pm

Waxman Uses Anti-Semitic Trope in Blast at GOP

“There are Jews who are trending toward the Republican Party, some of it because of their misunderstanding of Obama’s policies in the Middle East, and some of it, quite frankly, for economic reasons. They feel they want to protect their wealth, which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans.”

Right, Jews are interested only in money and vote accordingly.

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 9/19/11 at 6:25 pm

Mr. Waxman is foremost in the movement to implement carbon taxes or cap and trade regulations whose purpose is to redistribute wealth from productive working Americans to enrich Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, General Electric, and other special interests.

it is time for Jewish voters toconsider seriously whether the party of Al Sharpton, MoveOn.org, and Jeremiah Wright can still represent them in any manner whatsoever.

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 9/19/11 at 6:27 pm

It is really said when an ethnic group’s vote can be taken for granted.  I believe that President Obama and his advisors have underestimated the intelligence of their supporters.  As a Jew, I am interested first in family, second my synagogue, third the Jewish nation and fourth my own wealth.  If I take care of the first three, the fourth will follow.  The failure of President Obama not to appreciate that the so called “67 borders are not borders at all” (primarily at the insistence of the Arabs in 1967)and that the “West Bank” (called Judea and Sumaria before Jordan invaded)is disputed territory demonstrates a lack of acumen.

Comment by Aaron on 9/19/11 at 11:40 pm

Hey Howard!!!
If the Jews were only interested in money then they would all be Republicans already… and we wouldn’t having this discussion!!!
In general my beef is NOT with the Democrats or obama…strictly with his policies as related to Israel. In fact I think his own party also has a problem with his
Israel policies!!!
I’ve read the Prez. is coming to L.A. to do some Political Money Hunting with Jewish Hollywood…annnnd Hollywood is currently hard of hearing!

As I stated before I really dislike most of what republicans stand for…but Israel means a great deal to me…and that may just force our family to switch sides in the next election.

Comment by Stormin'Norm on 9/20/11 at 2:21 pm

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