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The Palestinian Statehood Showdown
(New Republic) Yossi Klein Halevi - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas tells the UN General Assembly that Israel bears sole blame for the origins of the conflict, that Israel is the sole obstacle to resolving it, and that, in effect, the Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel. And he receives a standing ovation. Barack Obama, Israelis' least favorite president, emerges as the defender of truth, while Bill Clinton, whom Israelis adored, joins the distorters. Israel, Obama said, deserves recognition not because of the Holocaust but because Israel is the Jews' historic homeland. But as it turned out, only Israelis seemed to be listening. The media response was largely contemptuous: Obama wasn't motivated by moral clarity but by political expedience, addressing not the Muslim world but American Jewish voters. Three years of estrangement had their effect: When Obama finally spoke the truth, few seemed to believe he meant it. In a sense, Abbas' speech was a response to Obama's: The Jews have no legitimacy in the land. That is the message Palestinians routinely receive from Abbas' media. There is a direct link between erasing the Jews from their own land and history and a view of the conflict which places all blame on Israel. In Abbas' telling, there were no Israeli peace offers, only colonialist oppression. Abbas' speech does indeed explain why there is no peace and no Palestine, but in the opposite way he intended.