By David Singer, INN http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63596425
The
1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine – and international law –
have finally emerged as triumphant victors over the 1964 PLO Charter,
following the collapse of 50 years of failed attempts by the PLO to
arbitrarily void the vote of the 51 members of the League of Nations who
unanimously endorsed the legal right of the Jewish people to
reconstitute the Jewish National Home in 23% of former Palestine.
This
significant PLO defeat and loss of face follows the ignominious end –
on 29 April 2014 – of the nine months negotiating deadline period
imposed on Israel and the PLO by US Secretary of State – John Kerry –
designed to achieve the “two- state solution” – the creation of a second
Jew-free Arab State – in addition to Jordan – in former Palestine (a
name given by the Romans to the area and that has no connection to the
Arabs who invaded hundreds of years later) for the first time ever in
recorded history.
The
American and PLO failure to achieve the “two-state solution” after 20
years of fruitless negotiations represents a lost opportunity not likely
to return for a long time – leaving the political prestige, influence
and credibility of those much-vaunted negotiators in total disarray in
the rapidly growing silent and abandoned diplomatic graveyard.
The
PLO – since its formation in 1964 – had arrogantly strode the world
stage claiming Palestine as the sole property of the Arab nation, while
simultaneously denying the Jewish people any right to live in their 3000
year old Jewish, ancient, legally sanctioned and biblical homeland.
Article 18 of the 1964 PLO Charter had brazenly declared:
“The
Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate System, and all that has
been based on them are considered null and void. The claims of historic
and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with
the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism,
because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent
existence. Furthermore, the Jews are not one people with an independent
personality because they are citizens to their states.”
Four years later article 18 had been replaced with a more strident, equally dismissive article 20:
“The
Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has
been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or
religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts
of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood.
Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do
Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are
citizens of the states to which they belong.”
This
outright rejection of international law by the PLO has never been
questioned by the League of Nations’ compliant successor – the United
Nations – which, acting in clear breach of Article 80 of the UN Charter,
knowingly collaborated to prolong the Arab-Jewish conflict in violation
of international law when welcoming the PLO purveyor of Jew-hatred
-Yasser Arafat – into its midst, with adulation and enthusiastic
applause, on 13 November 1974.
The
acceptance of this terrorist organization into the realm of civilised
political discourse by the United Nations, while the PLO simultaneously
continued to assert that the League of Nations had no power to make any
legally binding decisions, must surely rank among the most shameful
episodes and low points in United Nations history.
Lecturing
to Israel on international law while allowing the PLO to reject
international law was breathtaking hypocrisy on the United Nations part.
The
principle of respect for the law was cast aside by United Nations
members as they trashed the original and noble principles enunciated in
the Mandate on the altar of expediency and national self-interest
Adopting
countless condemnatory General Assembly resolutions of non-binding
validity, those spineless members lined up with the automatic majority
represented by Arab Islamic and third world member States to sell out
their souls to appease an organization of terrorists, law-deniers and
Jew-haters.
Former
UN Secretaries General stood by in silence as anti-Israel resolutions
denigrating and delegitimizing Israel were ramped up with ever
increasing hatred.
The
legal commitments enshrined in the Mandate had previously stood
resolutely firm against this Arab assault on the Jewish National Home
since 1922 – as partition proposals by the Peel Commission in 1937 and a
newly created United Nations in 1947 were contemptuously shredded into
the garbage bin of history by an Arab leadership that would not brook
any compromise or reconciliation with the Jewish people.
The
advent of major wars, including the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967
Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, brought staggering losses and
suffering for both Arabs and Jews as the Arab League armies still vainly
attempted to eliminate the Jewish State and the consequences of the
Mandate.
While the PLO fails to recognize Israel as the Jewish State – no peace between Jews and Arabs is realistically likely to occur.
The
Arab League and Kerry have the power to create a breakthrough –
pressuring Jordan and Israel to redraw the internationally recognized
boundary between their respective countries, as successor States to the
Mandate for Palestine
In
view of their loss of political clout, do these neutered politicians
and the United Nations really possess the diplomatic ability to make
peace finally happen?
Using
the wisdom and political sagacity of their League of Nations ancestors –
the miracle created by the Mandate for Palestine 92 years ago might
hopefully be set to resurface.if attempts to rescue the peace process
are started once again.
David Singer is an Australian lawyer who is active in Zionist community organizations in that country.
No comments:
Post a Comment