The Israel/Palestine Zero Sum Game Read Rabbi Cooper's Huffington Post op-ed
September 23, 2011
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS -- As an official of an accredited human Rights NGO, I am here at opening week of the U.N.'s General Assembly session, along with other human rights NGOs, to confront three issues:
1. The appearance of the soon-to-be-nuclearized bully Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regime continues to repress the Baha'i, Christian and gay minorities, and threaten Israel.
2. To protest the 10th anniversary celebration of the so-called anti-racism "Durban Process," which in reality mainstreamed anti-Semitic vitriol and podiums for serial human rights abusers like Ahmadinejad.
3. To monitor the Palestinians' unilateral statehood gambit.
In this connection, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is launching a 30-second video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJARFGAX_a4 on Sept. 20 that makes one point:
Since the 1947 vote that established a Jewish State and an Arab State in the Holy Land, Israel has sought to recognize all 23 Arab States and sought in return that her neighbors recognize the lone Jewish State. For 63 years, the answer from Arab leaders, including Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas, has been a resounding NO:
The Wiesenthal Center says that the uttering of six simple words by Arab leaders to their people and the world can insure that a two-state solution will lead to peace:
We Recognize Israel as a Jewish State.
That the situation does not look promising is an understatement.
The respected Palestinian Media Watch translated a report in the PA official newspaper, Al-Ayyam, on Sept. 9, that a mother, Latifa Abu Hmeid, had been chosen to lead the official procession to the U.N. offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to demand statehood.
"Nice touch," you say? Consider that Latifa is the proud mother of four sons currently in jail for murder and attempted murder of Israelis.
The newspaper reported that she had been chosen to launch the U.N. campaign last week because she is the "mother of seven prisoners and of the Shahid (Martyr) Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Hmeid." However, the paper did not mention that four of her imprisoned sons between them are serving 18 life sentences for facilitating suicide bombings and murdering Israelis. To show its appreciation, the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, decided to honor her with an award, "the Plaque of Resoluteness and Giving ... inscribed with the names of her four sons who are imprisoned."
"It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor."
By the way, one of Latifa's other sons is already in martyrdom heaven, having served Hamas faithfully and dying while killing another Israeli.
So while diplomats fill the halls and backrooms of U.N. headquarters this week in search of a formula for Mideast peace, it won't be happening any time soon -- not unless and until there are Arab leaders prepared to tell their constituents they will have to compromise; that they will have to accept the legitimacy of nearly 6 million Jewish neighbors, who have every right to be in the Holy Land and to pursue the dreams of Jewish destiny. So long as the official mascots of Palestinian Statehood are four murderers, so long as Palestinian officials speak of a Judenrein Palestine, no one -- not President Obama, not the Mideast Quartet's Tony Blair, not Ban Ki Moon, no one -- but the Arabs themselves can bring peace to the Holy Land.
Follow Rabbi Abraham Cooper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/simonwiesenthal
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