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Push for Palestinian State Has Deeper Motive
Elliot Bartky and Allon Friedman - The establishment of any future Palestinian state depends entirely upon negotiations with Israel within a mutually agreed upon legal framework of longstanding treaties. The Palestinian Authority's unilateral move will violate all previous agreements it signed with Israel, repudiate all relevant U.N. resolutions, and treat the United States, which has supported the PA with billions of dollars and incalculable prestige and good will during the decades-long peace process, with complete contempt. Over the past two years, the PA has avoided further negotiations in order to pressure Israel into greater concessions. Moreover, no one can reasonably argue that a Palestinian state is now viable. The PA is dictatorial, violent and corrupt; its civil society is chaotic; and it has no significant economy aside from what it receives in global charity, where it ranks first worldwide per capita. Moreover, Palestinians are now geographically split between Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza, with the governing authorities in these areas constantly battling one another. So why is the PA pushing for a state that has no realistic chance of succeeding? The answer is that the Arab world has been more interested in isolating, delegitimizing and destroying Israel than creating a successful Palestinian state. Bartky is president of the Jewish American Affairs Committee of Indiana and a professor of political science at Purdue University. Friedman is a doctor from Carmel. (Indy Star)