vote or no vote

I want to thank all of you who responded to the previous letter.  It really showed me how many are longing to hear some “good news,” even though what I am about to write this week does not fall under the same category, as it is just some information, so that we are not unaware of present situation here in the Middle East.  Last year when some were predicting war by the end of the year, I wrote apropos that notion, and reasoned why it was not yet in the interest of the surrounding nations to go to war against Israel.  Well, here goes again – another idea, another possibility, this time for the UN vote in September about a Palestinian homeland. Once again, simple logic tells us as to why there will be no such vote in the UN in September 2011.  I could be wrong, but after reading this past weekend what Fatah’s Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian “president,” said, as well as hearing other sources, I became very doubtful about the likelihood of this vote.

First of all, Abbas said that he would rather negotiate a peace treaty with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, than go for a UN vote. Why the sudden change of mind?   It turns out that some of the Latin American countries, several of which agreed sometime ago vehemently for the expedient creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, realized that should there be a vote under the present situation, with no agreed borders, it would create a precedent that would backfire on their own border disputes with their neighbors, and thus they too would be subject to a possible unilateral UN vote regarding their respective situations.  

It does not take too much analysis to explain why the PA wants to negotiate a settlement with Israel, rather than depend on a UN vote.  They just might not have enough votes to determine country boundaries, and that would mean that their present status in the UN could be jeopardized.  In case some of you don’t know about their unique status/membership within the United Nations, here is some information from the “Jewish Virtual Library”: 

  On July 7, 1998, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, giving them a unique status as a non-voting member of the 185 member Assembly. The Arab states originally submitted a resolution to upgrade the Palestinians' status in December, but it did not come to a vote for more than six months. The vote in favor was overwhelming, 124 in favor and 4 against with 10 abstentions. The countries opposing the resolution were Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
This is the latest step in the Palestinians' advancement at the U.N. In 1974, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was granted observer status, enabling it to maintain an office in New York but without all of the privileges that come with being a member. In 1988, the PLO's status was upgraded when the General Assembly designated the PLO as “Palestine.”
With the new designation, Palestinian representatives can raise the issue of the peace process in the General Assembly, cosponsor draft resolutions on Middle East peace and have the right of reply. They still will not have voting power or be allowed to put forward candidates for U.N. committees such as the Security Council.

Hence the Palestinians are in essence recognized as a state, albeit without defined borders. So will there be a vote or not in September, especially as the Americans and now also some of the European states are against such a move? Alternately, will Israel continue along the path of its generosity in face of the “plight” of the Palestinians and their “right to self determination”?  If the answer is “yes,” how can a true blooded Islamic nationalist who hates the very thought of there even being an Israel, accept gratuity from the hand of the enemy, especially after the latter’s leader has just declared to the world that the said land is the ancient homeland (of the ‘enemy’) which, in the words of this leader (Netanyahu), “we would be willing to give up, as painful as it may be, in order for it to become part of a Palestinian state”?

Many ask if war is unavoidable in our region. I tend to agree, but at the same time I suggest that it will not break out until the rest of the dictators in the surrounding nations are removed, and Turkey regains its control over its former empire (the Ottoman Empire), which was an Islamic Caliphate before the western nations divided it up after World War I.  Just as an imminent example, even as I am writing this, the Turks are poised to invade a section of Syria in order to secure a buffer zone for the Syrian nationals who are fleeing the brutal massacres by their own army in response to their protest against Bashar Assad’s regime.