Train Wreck

As we watch the slow motion train wreck that is the upcoming vote for Palestinian “statehood” at the UN, all you can really do is shake your head.

The majority of UN nations favor the move, even though Palestinian leadership seems incapable of governing in a manner the elevates its own people. It prefers to collect international welfare payments rather than building a viable economy, and refuses to move away from the hyper-violence the guides its interaction with Israel. Palestinian leadership is unwilling to accept Israel as a legitimate nation. They honor murderers and murder their own people when they make overtures toward peaceful co-existence with Israel. They institutionalize corruption, eschew the rule of law, and use victimization as an excuse for their own internal failings. And yet, a vast majority of UN member nations think them worthy of their own state with borders carved out of a sovereign nation defined unilaterally (by the Palestinians).

But that’s no surprise. The majority of UN member nations can relate to the Palestinians because the majority see elements of themselves in the Palestinians. Human rights abuses abound, violence is a way of life, corruption is endemic, and a hatred of Israel is common.

And what of the European and Western nations who have supported the Palestinian move? In virtually every case, their support for Palestinian statehood is being driven by the international Left. In what can only be viewed as irrational thinking, the Left demonizes Israel—the only nation in the Middle East that is a liberal democracy with operating courts, full rights for women, a gay population that doesn’t have to hide, a booming economy, and a vibrant cultural scene. Ya think maybe the Left has another agenda?

David Harsanyi summarizes the upcoming UN debacle nicely when he writes:

Sure, the United Nations has historically vacillated between deep irrelevance and monumental ineffectiveness. But with all its prevaricating and impotence on genuine threats to human rights across the world, next week it will be actively precipitating violence and endorsing ethnic cleansing.

It is understood that one of the preconditions for the existence of a Palestinian state is the judenrein West Bank. It will be purified of Jews, regardless of their political inclinations, Zionist or not, because effectively speaking no Jew will be able to live in the West Bank or East Jerusalem safely. Palestine Liberation Organization’s ambassador to the United States, Maen Rashid Areikat, has admitted as much.

The Palestinians strategy is relatively transparent— embarrass Barack Obama by forcing a veto in the security council, and as a consequence, generate a “seething anger” in the “Arab street” that will provide cover for violent “protests” that are nothing more than Intifada III.

The Palestinians have decided to play hardball despite the efforts by the Obama administration. It’s time for the United States to do the same. If the Palestinians proceed with their move (it's possible that they'll still be derailed or postponed), all U.S. aid for the Palestinians should cease. More importantly, a resumption of aid and support for any further “negotiations” must be tied to true concessions, not on the part of Israel, but by the Palestinians.

Further, it’s time for the U.S. to re-examine its disproportionate financial support for the U.N. (currently, 22 percent of the U.N. regular budget and more than 27 percent of the U.N. peacekeeping budget). Say, to the average of the top 10 dues-paying countries—not one dime more.

With this travesty rushing at us this week, it’s time to play hardball with both the Palestinians and the demonstrably corrupt, biased, and ineffective organization that unconditionally supports them.