Stand with Israel and vote NO!

Last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas formally submitted Palestine’s application to join the United Nations. In his effort to have Palestine unilaterally declared an independent nation-state, Abbas’ actions only further hindered an already stalled peace process.

The U.N. Security Council is the delegated final authority of considering the admission of new voting members to the U.N. General Assembly. The Security Council has 15 voting members, of which five permanent members have the power to veto any measure brought before it for consideration.

As a permanent veto member, the United States must invoke its veto for Palestine’s move to declare itself an independent state without a peace deal in place. President Barack Obama has already indicated that the U.S. would take such a measure if the issue was brought to a vote.

Before a Palestinian state can become a member of the U.N., it should seek to resolve its disputes with Israel. However, President Abbas’s actions now and in the recent past clearly indicate that he is not serious about achieving a lasting peace between the
two states.

In April, Abbas’s own Fatah party, which rules the West Bank, entered into a unity government with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. Just four years ago, the two factions fought a bloody civil war for control of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is an organization that sanctions the use of terrorism to advance its political goals. The use of suicide bombers on buses and the launching of an untold number of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel are only the most well-known cases. It has been listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State and the European Union.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Hamas has clearly committed itself to “destroying the Jewish state and replacing it with an Islamic state in all of Palestine.”  

There is no conceivable way for Israel to engage in peace talks with an organization that has factions , like Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction. Associating with an organization like Hamas’ clearly demonstrates Abbas’ disregard for the peace process and naïve way of thinking.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel supports peace and a commitment to the Oslo Accords, which state that both parties agree that the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be solved through direct negotiations between the two parties.”

Abbas is violating the Oslo Accords by attempting to circumvent Israel and not engage in direct negotiations.

If Abbas is serious about peace with Israel, he needs to get real. He must stop his needless efforts of trying to achieve some kind of Palestinian legitimacy through an international debating society.

He also needs to consider the implications of his continued partnership with Hamas, which only undermines the process further.

­— cjcaudil@indiana.edu