The Palestinians are planning to take their case to the
International Criminal Court (ICC) and also to the Security Council of the
United Nations. They had a difficult time getting the world to listen to them
in the past, but things are beginning to change, and the people of Palestine may have a
better chance now.
In fact, the irony is that individuals and institutions such
as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and its editors, who stood in the way of the
Palestinians in times past, are the ones making a case for their success this
time. Oh no – please don't be confused – these people and institutions have not
reversed themselves out of the goodness of their hearts; they have by being
lousy defending the indefensible, now that the indefensible has been forced to
play itself out in the open, and no longer behind the scenes.
You see, the strongest argument that the cabal comprising
the Wall Street Journal and like-minded hustlers, had going for them was that
America stood as honest broker between the Palestinians and the Jews, helping
the two sides negotiate an equitable settlement whose result would have been
the termination of Israel's military occupation of Palestine. The fact that
this did not happen after two decades of effort did not reflect badly on America because, in the absence of hard proof to
this effect, no one dared blame America
for the failure.
And without showing that America 's mediation had caused the
successive failures – whether they happened by fortuity or by design – the
world was not going to listen to the Palestinians in any serious way. This is
why the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) had no choice but to continue
playing the hand they were dealt knowing that the game was rigged from
beginning to end, and that they will never score as much as an ounce of success
at the negotiating table.
But now that the Palestinians have managed to take their
case out in the open, and have declared their intention to take it to the ICC
and to the Security Council of the UN, the characters at the Journal and all
those like them got gripped by panic, and they started to make the kind of
blunders that demolished their earlier arguments. This is shown in the piece
that was written by the Journal's editors under the title: “The Palestinians
Repay America” and the subtitle: “Obama has no choice but to cut off the $400
million in U.S.
aid.” It was published on January 3, 2015 in the Journal.
The editorial clearly shows that America was never the honest broker
it pretended to be. Instead, it stood like a big joker holding in one hand a
$400 million yearly bribe, and in the other the blackmail that the money can be
made to vanish. Worse, the dreaded American veto could appear in its stead. And
because honest brokers do not play this kind of games, the claim that the
negotiating parties had the chance to reach an agreement if only they tried
harder, began to sound phony like a Jewish promise. In view of all this, the
call of the Palestinians that they need the world to intervene and provide them
with relief, takes on the legitimacy and urgency that were not so apparent in
the past. Thank you, Wall Street Journal for your lousy, incompetent
performance.
And a performance of the same caliber seems to continue in
that the Journal editors are making the classic mistake which second rate
lawyers make when responding to a notice of legal action. Such lawyers
instinctively respond with the threat that if sued, their client will
counter-sue. Here is how the Journal put it: “By rights that would mean
investigating the Palestinian group Hamas for starting the Gaza
conflict by firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately into Israel .”
With this, the editors are saying to the PA: Our clients may
be guilty but so are your Hamas partners. And to this, the ICC judges will say:
We accept your admission of guilt and thank you for it, but you'll have to
prove the guilt of the party you are counter-suing. And the Jewish side will
have the impossible task of explaining why the Gaza conflict started with Hamas
firing rockets at Israel, and not with Israel committing the act of war that is
the blockade of Gaza – an act to which Hamas had the responsibility to respond
by firing those rockets.
And that's not all because the Wall Street Journal insane
advice continues: “The Palestinian actions may help push even more Israeli
voters toward hawkish candidates in elections ... Congress has stipulated that
the [$400 million] be cut off if the PA uses the ICC to make claims against
Israel.” To this, the ICC judges will say: Thank you for pointing out the nexus
between the quack democracy that is Israel , and the assembly of
prostitutes that the American Congress has become.