America, Recognize Palestine Now, By Terry Walz

Opinion, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

America, Recognize Palestine Now

By Terry Walz

21/08/2003

The American people should petition President George W. Bush to give defacto recognition to a Palestinian state now. Such a petition is being circulated nationwide by the Council for the National Interest (www.cnionline.org/petition.html) calling on him to issue an Executive Order and join 52 other countries of the world that have recognized Palestine.

President Bush could then rectify a 55-year old mistake made by Harry S. Truman.

In 1948, Truman recognized the fledgling state of Israel. Although UN Resolution 181 delineated specific borders for the new Jewish state in 56% of historic Palestine, President Truman chose to recognize Israel without recognizing specific borders. This sent the message to the world that the United States supported Israel’s right to exist.

As President Truman wrote in a statement explaining the de facto recognition of Israel, it would “hasten the recognition of [Israel] by other nations, and this will have a stabilizing effect in the Middle East.” Recognition was accompanied by economic assistance and a willingness to assist Israel in becoming a full member of the United Nations. Fifty-five years later, we must now take these same steps on behalf of Palestine.

If we had only recognized the state of Palestine at the same time and shown that the United States believed in both Israeli and Palestinian national aspirations in the homeland of Palestine, we could have contained and perhaps avoided most of the bloodshed of the past half-century. Recognizing a Palestinian state based on the 1947 UN Resolution would have made possible realistic negotiations by both parties. By only recognizing Israel, we immediately set ourselves up on one side of the issue. We must change the perception held by the rest of the world that we are only on the side of Israel.

Even today, as President Bush put his arm around Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and promised him a state, there is no formal acknowledgement of a de facto Palestinian state. If there were, it would give both sides something concrete to work toward: de jure recognition of the Palestinian state within certain boundaries.

We could also help bolster Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas with this initiative. An appointed official, Abbas faces strong opposition. In his short two months in office, he has had to make too many concessions to the Israelis and received too few tangible results in the eyes of the Palestinian people. President Bush has long supported Abbas over Palestinian President Yasir Arafat. Recognizing Palestine now would show the Palestinian populace that Abbas was making real progress in the negotiations.

President Bush has been outspoken in his opinion that at the end of the Roadmap lays a Palestinian state. His commitment to this issue has been steadfast. But this commitment is being questioned by members of his own party. Tom Delay, the House Majority Leader and a leader of the Christian Zionist movement in Washington, opposes any kind of US recognition of a Palestinian state, and virulently attacked his vision of a two-state solution during a recent visit to Israel.

In contrast, 56% of Americans in a July Zogby poll expressed support for the “immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.” The belief that the Palestinians deserve a state now is not an extreme one.

Recognition is completely in line with the Roadmap. The Palestinians have progressed with their Phase One obligations as far as possible without reciprocal Israeli action. Phase Two, which is to be completed by the end of this year, outlines the “creation of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders.” Recognizing such a state now would underscore President Bush’s confidence in his own vision of peace in the Middle East.

It would also show the Israeli right wing that no amount of foot-dragging will kill the Roadmap. The end of Phase One, which was scheduled for May 2003, has been held up by Israeli refusals to open Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, failures to freeze settlements, remove illegal settlements and outposts, lift curfews on Palestinian cities, towns, and villages, and allow the Palestinian people freedom of movement. If we hope ever to achieve President Bush’s vision of peace in the Middle East, we must encourage the real forces for peace in Israeli society and show the Israeli right wing that the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is inevitable.

Mahmoud Abbas has made history by bringing together Palestinian extremist groups and negotiating a cease-fire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Yet, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has brokered no such cease and desist order from the radical right-wing settlers. Construction on the Apartheid Wall continues, pre-empting final status negotiations, and the Roadmap is being held hostage by extremists. By recognizing the Palestinian state, we would level the playing field and give hope to moderates. We would affirm that the U.S., as the sole world superpower, is not only committed to a Palestinian state but recognizes such a state now without prejudging the division of Palestine.

Recognizing Palestine would also aid the President’s war on terrorism by eliminating a root cause of anti-American sentiment. Polls show that the most important issue to Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East is the United States’ handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By recognizing Palestine and rectifying Truman’s mistake, we could reinvent ourselves as a true honest broker.

*Terry Walz works at the Council for National Interest.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).