Thursday, September 29, 2011
Abbas plan for Palestinian independence will hurt the world
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
On Friday Sept. 24 there was a preview of Giuseppe Verdi’s choral-based opera Nabucco, the bravura work he wrote at 29 to depict Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem, and the refugees’ plight at the shores of Euphrates, unable to return home. Their chorus song Va, Pensiero, has been the requiem of the refugees throughout the world particularly the Jews. It may well be picked up by the Palestinians, if they were Western oriented.
The Verdi epic came to mind when, within days, the US received a blow to its prestige in the Middle East, with impact to our standing in the world economics and our domestic politics and potential damage to our ally, Israel. It happened when on Friday Sept 23 President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority came to the UN Security Council to request membership for the state of Palestine, as 184th member of the UN. He had the support of Arab League members.
The US and its EU allies have been long working to dissuade Abbas from this step, and President Barak Obama has stated that US will exercise its veto power in the 15-member Council, if necessary, to negate the PNA move. Actually, the US succeeded - with a potential disaster for the world peace in sight, the UN, EU, and Russia rallied behind the US in urging the Palestinians and Israel to return to the negotiating table within a month, with no preconditions. The Israeli leaders agreed, although they did not accept the PNA requirement to stop construction in the settlements, stating that a prior 10 months’ freeze of all new construction in the West Bank settlements, which house 500K Israelis, had been ignored by the PNA until it had nearly expired.
The US has been since way back buying peace in the Middle East (gaining access for our ungrateful oil companies is another issue), by subsidizing post-Sadat Egypt, to the tune of $3.25B/yr, since Camp David, and Pakistan with another $3B/yr since 2000s, to little avail.
The PNA, a 1994 product of the Oslo Accords, and the successor of Yassar Arafat’s militant PLO, is a parliamentary structure of 138 elected delegates, organized to facilitate of negotiations of peace. It recognized Israel, although Abbas now pinpoints that it does not mean accepting it as a Jewish state. PNA is supported by $1B/yr (2005 figures) from US and the EU, as part of the joint effort to bring forth peace, within the 1967 boundaries, with land exchanges for settlements and a reconciliation on return, and on joint ise of Jerusalem. Return means the right of the 4M Palestinians to return and reclaim properties in East Jerusalem, which was Jordanian before the 1967 war, Sharing use of Jerusalem is another big issue. Beneath all, and seldom mentioned, is the problem of water use, involving the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. The riparian rights to the river are shared by Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, the later dominant since 1967. Division of its use presents another stumbling block for peace.
Now Abbas, at age 76 and ready for retirement, wants to make his case, and be remembered in history This declaration is a propaganda vehicle for what he hopes to be the liberation of the Palestinian refugees, and it will not open any borders. Worse, it may generate warlike actions and provoke bloodshed. Even Hamas, the ruling party of the 1.5M Palestinians on Gaza and opponent to the PNA on West Bank – population of 2.5M, a confusing number, since it includes certain Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria - object to it, because they do not recognize Israel’s legitimacy.
While land exchange for settlements is more easily negotiated, the return of Palestinians and reacquisition of East Jerusalem just does not compute. Israel has 7.4M inhabitants, 26% non –Jewish: that’s nearly 2M voting Arab Israelis. The population density is 880/sq.mile, about the same as that of Japan. Apart from property rights, adding 4M plus Arabs (more, when you include the refugee camps in Lebanon etc.) would destroy Israel. Abbas and Israel will not be able to negotiate peace. unless the Arab League does not compromise on return.
So, a US veto may still be necessary, should the Security Council eventually vote for the Abbas proposal. and it would hurt the US in the Arab Spring countries which we supported, and who are largely turning to being led by traditional Moslem organizations, not friends of Israel. Even Turkey, under Erdogan, purportedly a moderate religionist, is overthrowing the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk modernism, and breaking its relations with Israel, and Egyptian rioters are robbing the Israeli embassy. In Libya the best organized revolutionaries are the al-Qaeda associated ones, and the most Western-friendly Libyans may get hurt.
Still, Obama may need to defeat the Abbas resolution, or at least slow down its processing. But more domestic support is needed.
The Republicans have expressed their objections to the aid to PNA in the past, because of some money distributed to suicide bomber families. A hint : it would be important for the goodd of the country to show GOP support for US policy, including agreement with our veto of the Abbas plan, if it comes to that.
|Just thinking out loud.
On Friday Sept. 24 there was a preview of Giuseppe Verdi’s choral-based opera Nabucco, the bravura work he wrote at 29 to depict Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem, and the refugees’ plight at the shores of Euphrates, unable to return home. Their chorus song Va, Pensiero, has been the requiem of the refugees throughout the world particularly the Jews. It may well be picked up by the Palestinians, if they were Western oriented.
The Verdi epic came to mind when, within days, the US received a blow to its prestige in the Middle East, with impact to our standing in the world economics and our domestic politics and potential damage to our ally, Israel. It happened when on Friday Sept 23 President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority came to the UN Security Council to request membership for the state of Palestine, as 184th member of the UN. He had the support of Arab League members.
The US and its EU allies have been long working to dissuade Abbas from this step, and President Barak Obama has stated that US will exercise its veto power in the 15-member Council, if necessary, to negate the PNA move. Actually, the US succeeded - with a potential disaster for the world peace in sight, the UN, EU, and Russia rallied behind the US in urging the Palestinians and Israel to return to the negotiating table within a month, with no preconditions. The Israeli leaders agreed, although they did not accept the PNA requirement to stop construction in the settlements, stating that a prior 10 months’ freeze of all new construction in the West Bank settlements, which house 500K Israelis, had been ignored by the PNA until it had nearly expired.
The US has been since way back buying peace in the Middle East (gaining access for our ungrateful oil companies is another issue), by subsidizing post-Sadat Egypt, to the tune of $3.25B/yr, since Camp David, and Pakistan with another $3B/yr since 2000s, to little avail.
The PNA, a 1994 product of the Oslo Accords, and the successor of Yassar Arafat’s militant PLO, is a parliamentary structure of 138 elected delegates, organized to facilitate of negotiations of peace. It recognized Israel, although Abbas now pinpoints that it does not mean accepting it as a Jewish state. PNA is supported by $1B/yr (2005 figures) from US and the EU, as part of the joint effort to bring forth peace, within the 1967 boundaries, with land exchanges for settlements and a reconciliation on return, and on joint ise of Jerusalem. Return means the right of the 4M Palestinians to return and reclaim properties in East Jerusalem, which was Jordanian before the 1967 war, Sharing use of Jerusalem is another big issue. Beneath all, and seldom mentioned, is the problem of water use, involving the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. The riparian rights to the river are shared by Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, the later dominant since 1967. Division of its use presents another stumbling block for peace.
Now Abbas, at age 76 and ready for retirement, wants to make his case, and be remembered in history This declaration is a propaganda vehicle for what he hopes to be the liberation of the Palestinian refugees, and it will not open any borders. Worse, it may generate warlike actions and provoke bloodshed. Even Hamas, the ruling party of the 1.5M Palestinians on Gaza and opponent to the PNA on West Bank – population of 2.5M, a confusing number, since it includes certain Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria - object to it, because they do not recognize Israel’s legitimacy.
While land exchange for settlements is more easily negotiated, the return of Palestinians and reacquisition of East Jerusalem just does not compute. Israel has 7.4M inhabitants, 26% non –Jewish: that’s nearly 2M voting Arab Israelis. The population density is 880/sq.mile, about the same as that of Japan. Apart from property rights, adding 4M plus Arabs (more, when you include the refugee camps in Lebanon etc.) would destroy Israel. Abbas and Israel will not be able to negotiate peace. unless the Arab League does not compromise on return.
So, a US veto may still be necessary, should the Security Council eventually vote for the Abbas proposal. and it would hurt the US in the Arab Spring countries which we supported, and who are largely turning to being led by traditional Moslem organizations, not friends of Israel. Even Turkey, under Erdogan, purportedly a moderate religionist, is overthrowing the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk modernism, and breaking its relations with Israel, and Egyptian rioters are robbing the Israeli embassy. In Libya the best organized revolutionaries are the al-Qaeda associated ones, and the most Western-friendly Libyans may get hurt.
Still, Obama may need to defeat the Abbas resolution, or at least slow down its processing. But more domestic support is needed.
The Republicans have expressed their objections to the aid to PNA in the past, because of some money distributed to suicide bomber families. A hint : it would be important for the goodd of the country to show GOP support for US policy, including agreement with our veto of the Abbas plan, if it comes to that.
|Just thinking out loud.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Donnerwetter Kakadu
It haunts me, a song line, an exclamation, seven syllables on a U shaped song line, by whom/ May be same man who wrote Mack the Knife, Bertolt Brecht, about anti-hero from John Gay's 2728 The Beggar's Opera. composer kurt Weills's wife Lotte Lenya sang? Chansonetty, Piaff-y voiuce, in a James Bond movie. Anyway, b
Brecht is the usual suspect
Aemstrong, Darrin.?
Going on:
I'll bring Lulu myself , from Don't Bring Lulu 1925
Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind? Es ist die Frau Konsul mit ihrer Hind - Erlkoenig parody, Wuerzburg 193x Resi Novel by Th Mann?
Die Aktien sind hoch denn sind sie niedrig, so wie der Arsch von Kaiser Friedrich., Real source?Prob ref is to "der Alte Fritz," Friedrich II of Prusia, "The Great" 1712-87 who died childless (heir FWII was nephew) and was deemed homosexual (by friend Voltaire?)
Brecht is the usual suspect
Aemstrong, Darrin.?
Going on:
I'll bring Lulu myself , from Don't Bring Lulu 1925
Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind? Es ist die Frau Konsul mit ihrer Hind - Erlkoenig parody, Wuerzburg 193x Resi Novel by Th Mann?
Die Aktien sind hoch denn sind sie niedrig, so wie der Arsch von Kaiser Friedrich., Real source?Prob ref is to "der Alte Fritz," Friedrich II of Prusia, "The Great" 1712-87 who died childless (heir FWII was nephew) and was deemed homosexual (by friend Voltaire?)
Labels: Bertolt Brecht, Frederick the great, Friedrich II, John Gay, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Lulu, MacHeath, Mack the Knife, Voltaite
