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The Palestinians' UN Agenda
(Wall Street Journal) Alan M. Dershowitz - The Palestinian Authority seeks to isolate Israel by demanding that the UN accord Palestine recognition as a "state" without a negotiated peace with Israel. 63 years ago the UN recommended partitioning the former British mandate into two states: one Jewish, the other Arab. Israel and most of the rest of the world accepted that partition plan, and Israel declared itself the nation-state of the Jewish people. The Arab world unanimously rejected the plan. The Arab population within Israel and in the area set aside for an Arab state joined the surrounding Arab nations in taking up arms. In defending its right to exist, Israel lost 1% of its population, many of whom were civilians and survivors of the recent Holocaust. Yet the current Palestinian leadership still insists on calling the self-inflicted wounds caused by its rejection of a two-state solution the "nakba," meaning the catastrophe. Abbas is adamant in refusing to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Yet every Arab state is officially a Muslim state. The Palestinian people came close to achieving statehood in 2000-'01 - a prospect that was shattered by Yasser Arafat's rejection of the Clinton-Barak peace plan. Arafat's rejection resulted in a bloody intifada uprising among Palestinians in which thousands of Palestinians and Israelis were killed. The UN will be responsible for any ensuing bloodshed if it stokes the flames of violence by raising Palestinian expectations while lowering the prospects for a negotiated peace. The job of the UN is to promote peace, not to retard it.