In his speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, President Obama outlined a new beginning, including views on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He said that it is “undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own." He added “The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security." In regards to the Israeli settlements he made clear that the United States did not accept their legitimacy. “This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." In a broader view, Obama noted, “but I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. These are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere. […] And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country -- you, more than anyone, have the ability to reimagine the world, to remake this world."

 

The relationship between Palestinians and Jews has been a complex one for over two millennia. Its conflicts find their foundation in the Jewish Torah. Even today, the Ultra-Orthodox Israeli government is driven by the eternal goal of redeeming all of the land of Canaan as outlined in the Bible. This land claim includes most of Syria up to the Euphrates River, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Sinai Peninsula. The land of the Palestinians is only an immediate target of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews. By mandate of the Torah, the Palestinians and all non-Jewish ethnicity are to be rooted out (Josh 13:2). As the extremist Ultra-Orthodox are guided by the Torah, they have a standing mandate not to enter treaties with anyone who lived in the land of Canaan (Ex. 34:15-16). It seems apparent that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been and will continue to stall the process of peace with any conceivable means. Given that religion is still the defining cultural marker of societies, the Biblical foundation cannot be taken lightly as a relic of the past. In his address to the U.S. congress on May 24, 2011, Netanyahu?an Ultra-Orthodox?made it clear that it cannot be denied that the land of Israel was promised to the Jews by Abraham (a denial of this claim to the land of Canaan is laid out in The Great Leap-Fraud, Social Economics of Religious Terrorism).

 

Through the assistance of a precursor of the United Nations—pressured by three terrorist organizations, the Zionist Irgun paramilitary, the radical Lehi Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, and the Haganah paramilitary—the world has provided the Jewish people with a sanctuary to share with the Palestinians. This decision was taken without the consent of either the Palestinians or the surrounding nations. Ever since, the Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been quarrelling and rebelling against the world’s will, and their neighbors are still intending to wipe Israel out. “Israel is the West’s spoiled child," the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “to this day it has never executed a decision by the international community" (nytimes 13.9.2011). These tensions will not be negotiated away with a peace treaty.

 

The situation is fairly straight forward as Palestinians and most of their neighbors do not wish to accept an Israeli state and Israel rejects a Palestinian state or eventually any other state that is situated in the land of Canaan. Hence, the acceptance of a Palestinian state by the United Nations is of utmost but rather symbolic importance. Firstly, the Palestinian people demand sovereignty; secondly, acceptance fulfills President Obama’s and the United States’ promise?an obligation?that they can choose their own government and live as they choose, not as Israel dictates; thirdly, it provides them with what is needed most: dignity and opportunity to their self-determination, even if they happen to choose to live under an Islamic framework. Welcoming statehood helps covering the generations old guilt of the world standing by while millions have been displaced by the Israelis from the Palestinian homeland and deprived of even the most basic necessities.

 

Will a Palestinian state bring peace to the Middle East? Given the aggressive stance of the Ultra-Orthodox leadership in Israel, it would be unwise to believe so. However, while the Biblical claim to Canaan is eternal, the current approach to a Palestinian state is at least not trying to reclaim the land of Israel. That in itself deserves the acknowledgment of Palestine’s sovereignty, free of Israeli conditions or (military) control. The concept of a sustainable platform of negotiations by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is not put into question regardless of the U.N.’s upcoming decision. All nations are continuously negotiating their relations?as nations. A United Nations resolution would establish the right for the Palestinians to act as a member of an international platform. Hence, a vote to accept Palestine as a member state is not the end of negotiations but a new beginning.

 

An American veto against full Palestine membership renders Obama’s inspiration for a new beginning hollow. America would be recognized as ruled behind the scenes by vested Jewish interests forming a new rift of hatred and anti-Americanism. Hence, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is asking not only the legitimate but also the right question of a full membership by the Palestinians with the United Nations, based on the 1967 borders. This week is a reckoning where the true faces will make themselves shown. If peace should ever be achieved, the approach with the Middle East must be changed. America has to ask itself what its interest is to protect Israel, which has treated the world’s will with contempt ever since its inception. The atrocities against the Jewish people of the past cannot serve for an excuse to eternal aggressions against their neighbors or to impose perpetual poverty on the Palestinians. This intolerable oppression amounts to state sponsored terrorism that has been indirectly supported by the United States of America, our iconic land of freedom.