By Robert Inlakesh
Saudi Arabia and France spearhead a UN initiative on Palestinian statehood. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)
France and Saudi Arabia’s UN initiative, framed as recognition of Palestine, is a Western-backed plan to enforce Palestinian disarmament and entrench the Greater Israel project.
The initiative launched by France and Saudi Arabia through the United Nations is nothing more than a Zionist plot that is designed to dismantle the Palestinian cause for statehood once and for all. Instead of creating a “two-State solution,” what they actually advocate is a path to fulfilling the Greater Israel project.
While the Israeli delegation boycotted the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting on Palestinian Statehood, praise was broadly heaped on French President Emmanuel Macron’s address, during which he formally recognized the State of Palestine.
For those newer to the issue, the recognition of Palestine by France, Britain, Canada, Australia and a number of other nations, presents itself as a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction. Yet, the initiative that these nations have joined onto is the precise opposite of progress. Instead, it represents a get out of jail free card.
The Lie of Recognition
This Monday, the French head of State laid out the main points linked into the “New York Declaration,” adopted unanimously at the UNGA last week. He also expanded upon what was written into the declaration and proclaimed that he is seeking a “sovereign, independent and demilitarized” Palestinian State.
Macron also asserted that he will condition the opening of a Palestinian Embassy on the “release of all hostages.” Reiterating what was stated in the declaration, in a more explicit fashion, Hamas will also be disarmed at the hands of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which the international community will arm, and will be banned from any role in the future State.
Another condition set forth is a vast set of reforms that the PA must undergo, yet the only one mentioned outright was the change in Palestinian textbooks. In addition to this, an international military force will also be deployed, should Israel allow this.
So let us address these main points:
A demilitarized Palestinian State: This would instantly rob Palestine of any autonomy or ability to defend itself. It would also be the first ever demilitarized state. No other nation on earth is subjected to such a condition in order to receive their recognition of a right to merely exist. Even Germany and Japan, following the Second World War, were allowed to rebuild their military capabilities to a certain extent.
“Release of all the hostages”: This demand makes no sense, as the PA has nothing to do with the actions of Hamas in this regard, so why is opening a PA-governed Palestinian Embassy set to be based upon a diplomatic achievement that only Hamas can achieve?
It is also clear, as has been explicitly stated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leading members of the Israeli opposition too, that they will proceed with their war efforts even if they strike a deal that secures the release of their captives.
The PA to disarm Hamas: The open declaration that the PA’s Security Forces will be armed and supported to carry out the role of disarming the resistance forces in the Gaza Strip, most prominent of which is Hamas, means backing a proxy force that will spark another Palestinian civil war.
This tactic was used before under the US Bush administration. After Hamas won the national legislative elections in 2006, the US covertly funneled weapons to PA forces led by PA Preventive Security head Mohammed Dahlan. The plot was to commit a coup, to overturn the democratic election results violently, but it backfired when the Qassam Brigades (armed wing of Hamas) foiled the plan, leading to what was known as the Fatah-Hamas Civil War in 2007.
Hamas banned from Palestinian politics: This means that democracy will be barred in Palestine. Keep in mind that the European Union and US consider almost every Palestinian political party, with the exception of the mainstream branch of Fatah, as a terrorist group.
In 2006, the US and EU also rejected the democratic election results when Hamas won, immediately imposing sanctions upon the new government and enforcing a blockade on Gaza.
Changing the Palestinian textbooks: This is an open declaration that any Palestinian entity would not even be permitted to clear its own textbooks and instead its education system will be at the mercy of the West, not even granting freedom of information or education.
An international force deployed to Gaza: The New York Declaration claims it advocates the doctrine of “non-violence,” yet Macron explicitly laid out that the proposal to bring in an international force would only occur at the explicit approval of the Israelis, who are permitted to maintain their military dominance and monopoly on violence.
In other words, the Palestinians will be forced into non-violence with Israel, yet the Israelis will have no restrictions imposed upon them despite committing a genocide over the past two years. Yet, the non-violent doctrine doesn’t apply when the PA is dealing with other Palestinians, because they will be backed in order to disarm Hamas.
As for the international force itself, if the Israelis permitted their entry to Gaza, they would only do so on their own terms evidently. So these forces, funded by the Western tax dollar, will be responsible for combating Palestinians alone, they are not there to deter the Israelis who will have to invite them to begin with.
Meaning only one thing: when the PA forces fail to disarm the resistance, a task the Israelis with far superior military means have failed to do themselves, the international force would likely aid this process. In essence, an international regime change intervention.
This proposal is simply a rehashing of Donald Trump’s 2020 “Deal of the Century,” with the exception being that instead of trying to enforce answers to the Final Status issues—Borders, Settlements, Jerusalem and the Right of Return—they will be left unaddressed and in limbo as the PA is used to execute its own people in Gaza. The only final status issue that they will try to implement an immediate solution to is the Security issue, in the most pro-Israel fashion possible.
They are not actually recognizing a Palestinian State, they are recognizing a semi-autonomous administration that will rule non-contiguous enclaves, all of which will be at the full mercy of the Israelis and their Western financiers.
Israel is currently seeking, as per the admission of Benjamin Netanyahu, what is called the Greater Israel Project. At the very least, this is accepted across the Israeli political spectrum as the shaping of a “new Middle East,” where Israel seeks to totally defeat its only opposition, the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance.
It is integral to understand that even the original Greater Israel proposal, set forth in Oded Yinon’s academic article back in 1982, was to create an Israeli empire across the region. Many misinterpret what the “Greater Israel” actually is; this is not a model whereby Israeli Jews will settle Damascus, Beirut, Amman and Baghdad, but instead a model under which the region will be divided into mini sectarian and ethno-States, all aligned with and under the military domain of Israel.
This is why the Palestinians must be disarmed and left defenseless to challenge their Israeli rulers under the “two-State” vision. It is also the strategy which is currently being pursued in both Syria and Lebanon.
Take the recent remarks of US envoy Tom Barrack into account:
“There will probably never be peace… people say they are fighting over borders, over boundaries. It’s not what they are fighting over. A border or boundary is the currency of a negotiation. The end result is somebody wants dominance, which means somebody has to submit. And in that part of the world, to submit, there’s no word in the Arabic language for submit, they can’t wrap their head around submit. So eventually prosperity is the only answer.”
The Israelis themselves openly state that they will never allow the Syrian military to be rebuilt, while they are adamant that southern Syrian lands must be fully demilitarized; with the exception of the Druze militias they control in Sweida. Hezbollah must also be disarmed, and they will permanently occupy southern Lebanon, according to this vision.
Why Does Israel Publicly Oppose This?
The answer to the question of Israeli opposition to this proposal is very simple: the current administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to complete its ongoing mission to achieve its final death blows to Iran and its Axis of Resistance. It will also not accept the idea of a Palestinian State, unless it can present it to its people in the same way as Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century.
So where does this leave the current status of this initiative? In all truth, it isn’t for immediate implementation. First, the Israelis will declare the annexation of portions of the occupied West Bank, they will launch new acts of war against Lebanon and Iran, they will also keep the genocide in Gaza going until they find the political opportunity to end it.
It may also be that Israel will not actually seek to implement this proposal until Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is out of office, using it at such a time as a get out of jail free card. This proposal means they get to have their cake and eat it: full defeat of all their enemies, expansion of Israeli territory, Lebanon and Syria at their full mercy, then genocides committed through proxies against sects who attempt to resist.
The real question here is whether this plot will ever come to fruition. In reality, it is just another piece in a new Sykes-Picot agreement. The likelihood that the Israelis will crush the Palestinian resistance, destroy Hezbollah, achieve regime change in Tehran, continue to subdue the Arab masses, keep its deeply divided society together, while also keeping the Palestinian Authority alive, all to take advantage of the situation at hand, is quite slim.
Each and every time, the Western imperialist powers and the Israelis underestimate the determination of the Palestinian people and the regional resistance. Either this conflict ends in one of two ways: in the Greater Israel empire or the full liberation of Palestine. There is no in between, the region will be enslaved or break free.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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