The Three Virtuous PM’s

Virtue Signaling by the Leaders of Spain, Norway and Ireland

What should Israel’s response be to the recognition of “Palestine” as a state by Norway, Spain and Ireland? 

The three self-righteous Prime Ministers of these countries surely expect to go down in history as the founding fathers of the State of Palestine.   I hope they don’t expect statues of themselves in the parliament building since Moslems don’t have statues.  But they might get a street named for them that intersect with the streets named after terrorists.  For generations, Palestinian boys may be meeting their girlfriends at the corner of Simon Harris Street and Sinwar Boulevard, or Pedro Sanchez Road and the corner of Mohammed Deff Street.   Or maybe Honas Gahr Store Road which leads to Haniyah Square.   One thing is for sure, Palestinian boys won’t be meeting their boyfriends at any of these locations.

So, what should Israel do?  The gut reaction for most of us is for Israel to recall its ambassadors and perform all other sorts of diplomatic warfare like throwing out some Embassy workers from Israel.   Some sort of sanctions like increasing taxes on imports might also be a response.   Harsh condemnation is also expected.

However, what if Israel takes a page from the Palestinian playbook and tries to pocket a concession for future negotiations?   Or what if the plan should be to show what fools these PM’s really are?   

The Palestinians have brilliantly perfected the “negotiate, accept and reject” method in which they negotiate with Israel, accept their concessions, and then reject the final plan only to start negotiations again using Israel’s first concessions as the “starting point”.   In that way, they went from 50% of the West Bank to 75% to around 98% under Ehud Barak and later the convict Ehud Olmert.   In each case, the Palestinians see the last Israeli concession as the starting point. Most recently, Hamas has used this to near perfection in the hostage negotiations.

Israel should try the same thing with Spain, Ireland and Norway.   Instead of the usual diplomatic hot air Israel should ask for clarification as to where they see the border of this so called Palestinian State?   Surely, you can’t recognize a State without recognizing its borders?

1.      Are the borders  from the “river to the sea”? 

2.      Does the new State of Palestine include the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan?

3.      Are the borders ”only” the  West Bank and Gaza?

If they answer number one then Israel will have exposed the ultimate goal of these three countries and the Palestinians which is the destruction of Israel. 

If, on the other hand this new State of Palestine includes the entire League of Nations Palestine mandate – meaning all of Israel, West Bank, Gaza and Jordan then the Jordanians themselves will protest. 

Which gets us to the third and most likely answer for the three countries – the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.  Will the Palestinian government accept this?  If they do or if Spain, Norway and Ireland do, then they no longer support the “right of return” of Palestinians to Israel proper and therefore end the whole issue that is the “Palestinian refugee problem”.  UNRWA will have to close and the whole argument of not letting Gazans leave Gaza falls apart.  If they define these borders and all that goes with it, the Palestinian Authority – now a government? – will, by accepting the credentials of the Ambassadors agree that they too have forfeited the “right of return”.   

That then will be the starting point in any future negotiations with a “State of Palestine” – refugees are now off the table.  The start of negotiations are the pre-67 borders with no right of return.  Concessions will have to come from the Palestinian side in order to get Israeli troops out of their “state”. 

This is pure fantasy of course.   When it comes to doing harm to Israel there are no rules and no logic.  What counts for others – a state must have defined borders !  -  does not count for Israel.  International law can say that no one can prevent people from leaving a war zone, yet when Israel is fighting a war, Egypt gets a pass.   No country is forced to feed its enemies during wartime – but there are different rules for Israel.

At the very least this demand from Israel will (temporarily)  put egg on the faces of the three Prime Ministers that feel so virtuous and self-satisfied.