Thursday, June 20, 2019

Bad Faith turning Negotiations into red Herring

In some cultures, the expression: “red herring” refers to the dishonest use of language. Thus, when someone is negotiating something he doesn't want to resolve, he would continue to pretend negotiating, but would digress from the original topic by throwing-in a proverbial red herring.

That's what the Jews of Israel have been doing for more than fifty years since the Security Council of the United Nations passed Resolution 242 pertaining to the lands that Israel has occupied illegally in the wake of the 1967 sneak attack it launched on its Arab neighbors.

Because talk fills the air again about the search for a solution to Israel's repeated misconduct in the region, the subject matter that's covered by Resolution 242 came up again. And sure enough, with the certainty that night follows day, the Jews of America joined their cohorts in Israel, and started the process of pretending to negotiate a way to end the occupation of Palestine. All they have been doing, however, is engage in the business of transforming the talks into a red herring.

You can see how that works out in the article which came under the title: “The true status of the territories,” written by Shoshana Bryen, and published on June 17, 2019 in The Washington Times. What sets this article apart from other articles treating the same subject, is that Shoshana Bryen is discussing the subject not just from the political angle, but from the legal angle as well.

Talking about the military occupation of Palestine, this is how Bryen began her discussion: “Some hoary myths persist year after year. One concerns the legal status of the territories.” She did not come out and said what those myths are but chided the New York Times for asserting that: “having Jews live beyond the 1949 Armistice line would be illegal, and that annexation of the territory by Israel would be compounding the crime”.

Well, despite Shoshana Bryen's misgivings, this is the reality of the situation because the “home” that the United Nations (UN) created for the Jews in Palestine, is the only patch of land that the UN has allowed Israel to retain. And this means that until now, that patch is all that the Jews are legally entitled to. Get it Shoshana: this is a legal fact, not a hoary myth.

What is hoary is what the Jews of Israel, working together with their cohorts in America, have been trying to establish as law. But the fact remains that what these people are doing, has no more legal force than the quack proclamation of an organized crime syndicate. In fact, what Bryen is doing in the rest of her article, is repeat those hoary pronouncements. Here are a few:

First: “The creation of secure boundaries for Israel has been a hallmark of American diplomacy before Oslo, during the Oslo period, and now beyond”.

What the people who came up with that idea are missing, and what Shoshana Bryen fails to understand, is the fact that American diplomacy does not make international law.

Second: “The Clinton Parameters had Israel retaining the areas … It was presumed that Israel would annex that territory”.

What those deluded Jews cannot get into their thick heads, is the fact that when Clinton was mediating, and when proposals were made back and forth between the Palestinians and the Israelis; none of the proposals became law. Had there been a final agreement, signed and ratified by both parties, the proposals would have become a legally binding contract, but not law. However, since the talks failed, none of what was proposed became legally binding. And certainly not law.

Third: “President Bush said that the borders and certain aspects of sovereignty 'will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement,' … It can be presumed that Israel would annex anything on its side of a final border”.

It is discouraging to see these people incapable of understanding what they themselves write. Here you have Shoshana Bryen reporting that nothing will be resolved till a final settlement is reached and yet, she gives legal force to Israel's claims, knowing that there is no final settlement. Not only that, she even gives Israel the right to go ahead and annex the land without a law that backs it or a legally binding contract that allows it.

Fourth: “President Obama explicitly called for a 1:1 swap of territory. It can be presumed that Israel would annex that territory”.

Again, because there has been no final settlement, nothing can be presumed, let alone acted upon.

Fifth: “Even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was reported to have a plan to trade [land against land] with Israel. It can be presumed that Israel would annex that territory”.

Again, Shoshana Bryen and her Jewish kinfolks can presume all they want, but until there is a final settlement, nothing has legal force.

In fact, if these big-mouth Jews want to do something constructive, they could suggest that Israel should remove the settlers from the land it presumes will be swapped and offer it to Mahmoud Abbas. The bet is that Abbas will instantly allow Israel to annex what is presumed he will relinquish in return.

Let Israel do that, and it will have started the confidence building measures that will lead to a final settlement that both sides can live with.

As to Shoshana Bryen's suggestion at the end of her article, that David Friedman's probing into the intent of UN Resolution 242 will help find answers –– well, this is the red herring that the Jews have been throwing into the discussion for half a century. Doing more of the same is beginning to stink like a rotting fish. And the world cannot take it anymore.