Get Over It: Palestinians Have No Peace Partner

Seemingly, the “conditional motion” followed UN General Assembly’s decision in 2012 to upgrade Palestine’s status to non-member observer state. It also followed Sweden’s decision to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state. Other European countries followed suit to implement the “illusion” of two-state solution, the latest being France – that of course, with its own silly conditions.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he will convene a new summit aimed at reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. He has also warned that France is prepared to recognize Palestine if the talks fail. It doesn’t take a strategic mind to foresee that the French initiative will fail; so Paris might as well go ahead and “recognize” Palestine – peace talks notwithstanding:

Israel continues to expand its illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian lands, particularly in East Jerusalem, al-Quds, which is supposed to be the future capital of the State of Palestine. The illegal settlements have already unravelled the two-state solution while no one in the West has ever bothered to prevent it from happening, particularly in France.

Still, France has suggested an openness to getting peace talks restarted through a UN Security Council resolution – subject to further consultations with Israel and the United States. This is while Washington has already made clear that it is not “open” to such efforts at the Security Council. Likewise, Israel has expressed outrage at the announcement, saying it is “no way to negotiate.” So in effect, France is wasting everybody’s time to even bring up the subject matter at the UN.

Add to this the following historical facts and conditions, and you get a rough idea why we keep saying Palestinians are denied. They are severely compromised. It’s been this way for decades. Peace talks were stillborn from inception. They are fake. They are a charade:

Longstanding unresolved final status issues are off the table – again. They include ending occupation, self-determination, settlements, borders, diaspora Palestinians right of return, borders, air, water and resource rights, as well as East Jerusalem al-Quds as Palestine’s exclusive capital.

The bitter irony is that the latest political charade is only designed to redeem France from its dark history in the region by helping to create Israel, while at the same time revive the failed notion of a two-state solution to the conflict. Indeed, there is no other way to explain this latest French gesture.

History tells us that peace talks reflect futility, failure and betrayal. They change nothing and this time’s no different. History also tells us that a two-state solution will continue to create an unacceptable and perpetual suffering and security situation to Palestinians.

In any case, the real end goal in easing Palestinian suffering has to be what Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has already declared: “Muslims, Jews, Christians and other citizens living under one roof and under one system of democratic governance for a lasting peace in the Holy Land.”

The illusion that the new French-led peace process could lead to such a just solution, or that the Palestinians have peace partner, must be abandoned. They never did. They don’t now. Get over it.