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Why the UN Security Council Can't Solve the Arab-Israel Conflict by Itself

(Sydney Morning Herald-Australia) Einat Wilf and Shany Mor - True peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved via direct negotiations. One should be very skeptical of internationally imposed settlements. The Palestinians don't need another UN Security Council resolution to achieve statehood. They could have it today by making peace with Israel. In fact, they could have had it in 2008 by accepting then-Prime Minister Olmert's peace offer. The recent draft Security Council resolution "reaffirms" the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, but said nothing of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in its historic homeland. Furthermore, it makes no mention of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, nor mention of suicide bombings. While it is specific about Israeli concessions on territory, it was very vague about the "security arrangements" that will come after an Israeli withdrawal. Israel's concerns that the West Bank, which overlooks every major Israeli city and town, could become a base for Gaza-style rocket attacks were not even considered. International proposals that include balanced-sounding banalities mixed with entirely unbalanced specific demands are guaranteed to fail. Dr. Einat Wilf is a senior fellow with the Jewish People Policy Institute and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Shany Mor served as a director for foreign policy on the Israeli National Security Council.
2015-02-18 00:00:00
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