Very sobering article in the NYT's today, regarding the looming vote in the UN General Assembly, on the issue of Palestinian statehood. A vote on a resolution, to grant recognition to a Palestinian state, could come as soon as September of this year and, as things stand now, it seems destined to win passage. The potential ramifications of such an event are significant, to say the least.The proposed Palestinian state would encompass all of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Passage of the resolution would immediately put Israel in the position of occupying, controlling, and settling, territory belonging to a fellow member state. The big difference between this UN resolution, and the dozens before it that were critical of Israel, is that this vote will come in the General Assembly, rather then in the Security Council. What that means is that the United States will not be able to veto this resolution, as it has done some 60 times before, to UN resolutions critical of the Jewish state.
"Most of the West Bank remains occupied by Israel. Thousands of Israeli troops are deployed here, and 120 Jewish settlements dot the land. Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints make ordinary life impossible for many of the territory's 2.5 million Palestinians. U.S.-mediated talks aimed at ending the conflict are moribund."
The excerpt I pasted above came from a Wall Street Journal article on the same subject. Now, the Journal is not known as a bastion of anti-Zionist thinking. I don't recall too many articles or editorials in the Journal championing the Palestinian cause. However, simply stating the obvious represents a dangerous threat to Israel's ability to maintain the status quo. And, that is the best that Israel and her supporters can hope for. Because any change in the status quo is going to come at Israel's expense.
My thinking on the subject is that Israel will ultimately have to yield to the realities of both history and demographics. And that will spell the end of the distinctly Jewish state that has existed since 1948. The so-called "two-state solution" was never anything, but a chimera. There simply are not enough land, or resources, to support two independent states. A single multi-ethnic state is the only logical answer to a problem that has stubbornly defied solution. There is no other way.
