PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD -- NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T

By Sig Demling

The Palestinians on-again-off-again bid to achieve statehood through the United Nations comes and goes like roaches in my kitchen. 

Now you see them; now you don't.

Mahmoud Abbas, chief promoter of the UN gambit, is an inveterate faker.

Although his term ended nearly four years ago he remains artificially perched in the role -- as the Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick so aptly puts it -- of "invented position of Palestinian Prime Minister." (His pseudo-intellectual sidekick, Saeb Erakat, is no bargain either.)

But what of their UN charade? Does it have a smidgen of reality attached? Would it be legal?

Of course not but Yasir Arafat's longtime puppet and current master of Arab graft, doesn't care. The following are a few choice facts that Abbas chooses to ignore: 

ILLEGAL I: Any such attempts by the Palestinians would violate agreements with Israel. And if that's the case, it frees Benjamin Netanyahu to play ping-pong and start violating Israel's agreements with the Arabs.

ILLEGAL II: All major agreements between Israel and the Palestinians have required that disputes between the parties be settled through direct negotiations and not via third parties.

ILLEGAL III: The Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum (Sept. 4, 1999) bars unilateral moves proposed over the past few years by the Abbas-Erakat duet.

If the Palestinian route through the United Nations sounds like an old record, it should. After all, this is a very old song of the desert.

On October 1, 1948 the Higher Arab Committee, claiming to represent the Palestinian people, passed the Proclamation of the Independence of Palestine. And that was that until 40 years later, on November 15, 1988 the PLO declared an independent Palestinian state.  

"Under UN criteria," wrote Alex Safran, in the CAMERA Media Report, "the territory under the control of the Palestinians does not constitute a state."

That's because due to the Oslo Accords and other agreements the PA has limited and even temporary authority. Or, as Safran points out:

"In no sense does the PA have complete governmental control over a permanent population nor does it have control over a defined territory. The bottom line is that only through good faith negotiations with Israel can the Palestinians address these issues and achieve statehood."

If the Abbas-Erekat bid gains any traction it would be both a sham and a shame primarily because of Abbas career-long hatred of Israel not to mention the endless series of Arab Jew-slaughter that preceded the state of Israel.

FACT: On October 4, 1938 Arabs broke into the Tiberias house of Joshua Ben Arieh where they stabbed and burned to death, Joshua, his wife and one son. That done the Arabs then stabbed and burned to death three children of Shlomo Leimer. Not satisfied with their work, the murderers broke into the house of Shimon Mizrahi where they killed his wife and five children before setting fire to the house.

FACT: In March 2011 Udi and Ruth Fogel of Itamar and their three childen were stabbed to death and partially decapitated by Arabs -- who else?

FACT: Abbas, as Glick asserts, has been an "inveterate Jew-hater" not to mention a long-time member of a terrorist organization. What's more his "doctoral" dissertation is a denial of the Holocaust.

And the United Nations is going to take these guys seriously?

If so, then the UN might as well move itself to the bottom of East River!