Testing Obama: The Run-Up To Durban III
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/46679/author \o Testing Obama: The Run-Up To Durban III,



Editorial Board \t _blank
January 05, 2011 
The Jewish Press
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/46679 \t _blank http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/46679


Two weeks ago the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, by a vote of 104 to 22 with 33 abstentions, to hold Durban III, a one-day commemorative event on September 21, 2011 to reaffirm that the [original UN-sponsored Durban I declaration of 2001] provides the most comprehensive UN framework for combating racism.
 
It will be recalled that President Bush ordered U.S. delegates to walk out of Durban I when it became clear it was morphing into a platform for savaging Israel and the West. Indeed, the final declaration singled out Israel among the world's countries, likening Zionism to racism and referring to the plight of the Palestinians.
 
The Obama administration voted against the resolution because, said Ambassador Susan Rice, the Durban declaration process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we do not want to see that commemorated. 
 
Hopefully, President Obama will order a boycott of Durban III. Bestowing American prestige on an event that has the potential to be part and parcel of what human rights legal scholar Irwin Cotler has described as a virulent globalizing anti-Jewishness reminiscent of the atmospherics that pervaded Europe in the 1930s is to be avoided at all costs.
 
But even just the run-up to Durban III promises to be an international festival of anti-Israel invective. In recent weeks there has been a spate of announcements by South American countries concerning their intention to recognize a Palestinian state regardless of the state of negotiations between Israel and the PA. Just last week PA President Mahmoud Abbas laid the cornerstone of a new Palestinian Embassy in Brazil's capital and also attended the inauguration of Brazil's new president. And the list of countries recognizing a Palestinian state is expected to grow much longer in the coming months. 
 
However, there are, as we observed in this space two weeks ago, rules of international law governing the acceptance of new states by the United Nations, and the entity ruled by the Palestinian Authority simply does not meet those standards by any stretch of the imagination. 
 
Indeed, Uruguay is one of the countries that declared its intent to recognize a sovereign Palestinian state, yet its foreign minister told reporters that officials are studying the implications of that decision with regard to international law and that actual recognition will only follow that review. 
 
Obviously, though, this will not simply be a matter of legal niceties - politics can be expected to predominate. But equally significant issues will roil the waters. 
 
The PA has introduced a resolution in the General Assembly calling Israeli construction in the settlements illegal and an impediment to peace. PA President Abbas is telling everyone who will listen that he is not breaking any new ground here since that is virtually the same formulation used by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Of course, it's one thing to hold this as a pre-negotiation position ultimately to be decided by direct negotiations and another to press the Security Council to impose it as a conclusion. But again, politics, not law, will predominate. 
 
The Palestinians also are seeking a Security Council resolution to supersede the well-known Resolution 242. Unlike 242, however, the Palestinian draft does not mention Israel's right to secure borders, nor that Israel would not be required to withdraw from all conquered territories, nor that negotiations are the only way to resolve the issues between Israel and the Arabs. Once again, however, for much of the world precedent and legal principles of reliance can be expected to be trumped by politics. 
 
Another Palestinian ploy seems to be emerging. Palestinian spokesmen say Palestinians will be engaging in civil disobedience in the form of protests and demonstrations, with the unspoken premise that any resulting violence will cast Israel in a bad light. Indeed, questionable reports of two civilian protesters having been killed by the IDF are being circulated by the PA. And of course the orchestrated fallout from the Turkish flotilla episode continues to percolate. 
 
So it seems clear that we can expect the anti-Israel crescendo to build in the next several months. It is therefore crucial that the U.S. seize every opportunity to thwart Palestinian efforts to end-run negotiations and resort to international forums. 
The Palestinians must be made to realize that peace in the Middle East will not materialize by international fiat but rather through serious face-to-face negotiations.