Why Australia Must Reject The Upcoming Palestinian Statehood Bid

Noting that the 20th of next month is "the date that now looms like a dark cloud on the Middle East horizon after the decision by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to request formal recognition of the state of Palestine by the UN," Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon, founder and chairman of the Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange and the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum, lists a number of reasons why Australia should not support Abbas's bid.

- the fact the UN has been a bastion of anti-Israel sentiment and a platform for Israel bashing

- Australia is committed to a two-state solution

-but this commitment is conditional on Israel's right  to live in peaceful and secure borders, a right denied by the charter of terror group Hamas, whose military wing is outlawed in Australia, and it's also based on bilateral direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, whereas the Palestinian bid for statehood via the UN is unilateral

- Palestinian officials claim to be planning worldwide protests (probably including protests in Australia) on the day of the UN vote, and the likelihood of mass unrest across the dusputed territories and Arab world does not augur well for peace and stability or a kickstart to bilateral talks between the parties

- Foreign Minister Rudd’s alleged preference for Australian abstention on 20 September is widely viewed as a sop to the UN's Arab bloc, whose support he wants for Australia’s bid for a temporary seat at the UN Security Council in 2013, but it's wrong to sacrifice Israel for that aim.

- anyway, an affirmative vote at the UN General Assembly will be legally ineffective, since full membership of the UN for a Palestinian state requires the backing of the 15-member Security Council and the United States intends to veto the proposal.

- an abstention by Australia would be misrepresented by the Greens and their leftist bedfellows as a victory:

Aussie Greens Help To Demonise Israel in 2006

"For despite [Greens leader] Bob Brown’s public statements, among his growing ranks are those who try to disguise their anti-Israel vitriol under the veneer of progressive politics.

The newly elected senator for NSW, Lee Rhiannon, is the quintessential case in point. She openly defended Marrickville Council’s ill-fated support for the Israel boycott, a campaign that has morphed into the targeting of Max Brenner chocolate shops across Australia.

Make no mistake. Factions of this mob of anti-Israel protesters — some of whom are due in court next month for breaching bail conditions after they were initially arrested in the melee outside Max Brenner in Melbourne on July 1 — are red, not green.

One of their chants reveals their true colour: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

This is straight out of the Hamas song sheet and is not-so-subtle code for the elimination of Israel and, in its place, a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.  [My emphasis]

Moreover, what is so galling is their rank hypocrisy. Where are the mass protests about the slaughter of innocents in Syria, or Libya, or Egypt? Their silence about these crimes is deafening."

Read the article:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gillard-is-right-and-rudd-is-wrong-to-sacrifice-israel-on-altar-of-un/story-e6frg6zo-1226119974007

Foreign Minister Rudd Wants Australia To Abstain On Palestine Recognition At The UN

Australia's Doc Evatt played a key role in facilitating Israel's birth at the United Nations in 1948 http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/01/aussie-docs-role-in-birth-of-israel.html, but Australia's Gillard government seems unlikely to help to bring a Palestinian state to fruition at the same, now much corrupted, forum in September.

At least, not by active means.  Passive means are another matter.

For if foreign minister and former prime minister Kevin Rudd, presumably with an eye on good relations with the Arabs and to ensure that Australia wins a temporary seat on the UN Security Council next year, had his way, Australia would abstain from voting on the issue.

He's advised prime minister Julia Gillard (pictured), hitherto known as a strong friend of Israel, of his view.

Last month, in Canberra, Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatab lobbied Chris Evans, who was actng as foreign minister while Rudd was in hospital awaiting heart surgery, on the issue.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/rudd-says-abstain-on-palestine-vote-gillard-backs-israel-20110807-1ihrc.html#poll

"Prejudiced Fanatics Who Should Look Into Their Soul": Aussie MP On The BDS Brigade

Jewish politician Michael Danby, a well-known Labour member of the federal House of Representatives in Canberra, where he sits for Melbourne Ports, has been deeply and prominently involved in pro-Israel activism since his student days in Melbourne in  the 1970s.

"These people are prejudiced fanatics who should look into their soul," Mr Danby, who chairs Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, has justifiably observed of the mob who (as videos I posted show) demonstrated raucously and bitterly outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop in central Melbourne on 1 July, when several policemen attempting to keep order were injured.

He continued: "While 1500 people are murdered in Syria, they launch their own sad little attack on a chocolate shop because it has stores in Israel.

 It’s a bit rich. Almost as rich as one of Max Brenner’s delicious Danish Toffee Hot Chocolates. I urge the good people of Melbourne to warm up over winter by savouring Max Brenner’s delicious delights.

 Boycotts of – and attacks on – Jewish commerce like this belong in the darkest chapters of our history books not in the shopping centres of Melbourne in 2011."

Noting that the BDS chanted "From the River to the Sea," Hamas’s taunting warcry for an Islamic state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, Danby rightly stated.

"These people are not in favour of a Two State Solution. Hatred motivates these calls for elimination of the Jewish State."

According to a report by the antipodean J-Wire news service, he added that in the coming weeks the Labor Party will display a series of pro-Israel manifestations in line with the views of mainstream Australians, "90% of whom were sickened by the fanatics attacking police and the Israeli franchise."

Disgusted by the conduct of the BDSers choc-a-bloc with hate, Kevin Rudd, Australia's Minister For Foreign Affairs, last week joined Michael Danby for something sweet at Max Brenner's in Melbourne (they are pictured  above at the entrance, Mr Danby on the left of the photo).

It seems that Mr Rudd was especially moved by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by the well-known Australian public intellectual Dr Gerard Henderson, a conservative columnist and executive director of the Sydney Institute, who's a supporter of Israel: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/jews-know-acceptance-still-has-its-exceptions-20110711-1haka.html

According to J-Wire, Max Brenner’s management has pointed out that despite the antics of the BDSers 26 Max Brenner franchise stores operate in  Australia and there are queues of people waiting to enter some of the new stores in Queensland.

Talking of Queensland, here's a bunch of "prejudiced fanatics" marching a few days ago in central Brisbane against Israel's "apartheid wall" – the security barrier that's been rather effective at protecting Israelis against attacks by homicidal maniacs with bombs strapped to their bodies.  These BDSers are egged on by "Justice for Palestine" activist Kathy Newman, a Socialist Alliance candidate at several elections who's expressed solidarity with the arrested "Boycott Israel 19" of  Melbourne on 1 July and has foreshadowed a protest outside Max Brenner in Brisbane next month: http://boycottisrael19.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/solidarity-from-brisbane/

Hat tip for the video: reader Shirlee

Australia's BDS Council May Face Sack

"It's unproductive. It's completely disconnected from the reality of Middle Eastern politics," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd  says of the Greens-driven BDS obsession that now is impelling the inner Sydney  Marrickville Council to throw away all items in its possession with links to Israel. (Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

This BDS move, which conjures up distasteful images of the Nazi era and, not surprisngly, is widely seen as antisemitic (though they'd never admit to that, would they?), involves Hewlett Packard computers, Veolia waste services and Chevrolet (Holden) cars, among other products.  (See other products here: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/marrickville-council-faces-4-million-bill-for-israel-bans/story-e6freuzi-1226038733018).

The Premier of New South Wales, Barry O'Farrell, the President of the Local Government Association of NSW, Keith Rhoades, the Federal Greens leader, Bob Brown, and the founder of the Aussie Greens, Norm Sanders, have all attacked the Council's obsession, with Sanders saying exasperatedly on radio "What's all  this anti-Jewish stuff? I haven't heard one word about the environment from these people [Marrickville's self-styled Greens]."

It's time, he indicated, for the Greens to return to their core values, which are unreflected in the policy, and for the council to return to the purpose for which it exists (namely, rates, roads, and rubbish).

O'Farrell has warned Marrickville's boycott-happy mayor and aspiring politician Fiona Byrne (pictured, who's reportedly "gone to ground") that unless the council abandons the policy it may face the sack. 

It seems that the cost of boycotting Israel will be $A3.7million, and in consequence at least one Green councillor appears to be backing away from the folly.  Indeed, there's some talk of a split among them.

Meanwhile, Green senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, an old hard-left anti-Zionist trouper who grew up in a Communist household, has defiantly told Sky News: "It's not an anti-Israel position at all."

Yep, Lee. Tell that to the marines.

Down Under, the Dream Time ... But What of Middle East Reality?

The following article, “Palestine – Time for Hard Questions and Even Harder Answers”, by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, was obtained from the antipodean J-Wire service http://www.jwire.com.au/featured-articles/palestine-time-for-hard-questions-and-even-harder-answers/14479




Hague and Rudd (Daily Telegraph)

 The international failure to accept the final breakdown of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was yet again highlighted in the communiqué issued in Sydney on 18 January 2011 at the conclusion of the Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations between Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd and Minister for Defence Stephen Smith, and the United Kingdom’s First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague and Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox.

“The answers are getting harder and harder And there ain’t no way to bargain or to barter”
Blues Traveler

It seems as though both countries were living in a dream world of their own as they solemnly pronounced:

“Australia and the UK highlighted their strong support for a just and enduring peace in the Middle East based on a negotiated two-state solution where Israel and a future Palestinian state live side by side in peace and security. Both countries highlighted the urgent need for Israel and the Palestinians to return, as a matter of urgency, to direct talks on final status issues, and to refrain from actions which undermined confidence, such as settlement construction. Both countries reaffirmed their practical support for Palestinian institution-building in preparation for statehood.”

Surely the Ministers were engaging in wishful thinking with no possible hope of their wish-list ever coming to fruition.

With

• direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority effectively ended,

• an impotent Quartet comprising America, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations unable to bring the parties together and

• a raft of countries recognizing or threatening to recognize a non- existent , undefined and undeclared 22nd Arab State between Israel, Jordan and Egypt in flagrant violation of international law

 it surely is time to question whether there is any reasonable prospect of ever achieving a negotiated two-state solution between Jews and Arabs pursuant to the Oslo Accords formulated in 1993 and the Roadmap proposed by President Bush in 2002.

There are those countries such as Australia and Great Britain that apparently believe such a resolution is still possible.

Yet 17 years of negotiations have only seen

• the division of the West Bank into three administrative districts and

• the unilateral decision taken by Israel to evacuate Gaza in 2005.

The evacuation of Gaza has proved a total disaster

• ruining the lives of thousands of Jews forcibly removed from their homes,

• splitting the area proposed for the new Arab state – the West Bank and Gaza – into two separate and separately administered entities with no prospects of reconciliation between the two governing political entities – the Palestinian Authority and Hamas

• sparking the return of Israel’s army to Gaza in December 2009 to root out the threat posed to Israel’s civilian population by the indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets from Gaza

• causing Israel and Egypt to impose a blockade to prevent the entry of terrorists, arms and war materiel into Gaza

• Witnessing an ever increasing level of violence from Gaza and retaliation by Israel

Gaza and Hamas now appear to have been placed in the “too hard basket” by the international community. Instead it has thrown its weight behind the Palestinian Authority in seeking to resolve the issue of sovereignty in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – a far cry from the two-state solution posited by Oslo and the Roadmap.

Administrative responsibility for 95% of the West Bank Arab population has been vested in the Palestinian Authority and has indeed begun to see a marked improvement in their daily lives.

However the continuing refusal of the Palestinian Authority to moderate its political claims to sovereignty in anything less than 100% of the entire territory of the West Bank remains a stumbling block that has precluded any progress at all in resolving the division of sovereignty in the West Bank between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

There are other impediments to the conflict that have defied resolution and increasingly make it certain that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are already dead and buried.

If countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom still believe otherwise – then they would do well to seek answers to the following questions from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority:

1. Is the Palestinian Authority prepared to recognize Israel as the Jewish National Home reconstituted pursuant to the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter?

2. Does the Palestinian Authority intend to persist with its demand that every square centimeter of the West Bank be ceded to it by Israel or is it prepared to accept less in exchange for an equivalent land swap by Israel?

3. Is Israel prepared to contemplate a land swap?

4. Is the Palestinian Authority still committed to former Arab residents of what is now Israel or their descendants being given the right to return to live there, what would be the appropriate number the Palestinian Authority would demand be given this right and what number would Israel be prepared to accept?

5. Is Israel prepared to allow the creation of a 22nd Arab State between Israel and Jordan in the West Bank with full and unfettered access and control over West Bank air space?

6. Is the Palestinian Authority prepared to accept a State in the West Bank with restricted control over its air space?

7. Is Israel prepared to evacuate and relocate all the Jewish residents of the West Bank?

8. Is Israel prepared to cede its claims to sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem?

On any minimal understanding of the conflict – one could not expect answers to these questions that would pose the slightest optimism in believing the negotiated two-state solution has any chance of success.

The sooner alternative solutions are introduced to replace the failed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – the sooner the current dangerous impasse that threatens the resumption of hostilities can be averted.