US Knesset Resolution 185 Reconsidered: To be or Not To Be American

by William A. Cook

This week the United States Senate unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by its masters, the State of Israel and AIPAC, to prevent the United Nations, of which the United States is a member, from exercising its constitutional rights to free speech to deliberate on the recognition of a Palestinian State. The resolution is an exercise in coercion since its intent is to withhold funding from the Palestinian Authority should the UN deliberate on such a resolution of recognition, making the UN responsible for depriving the Palestinian people of America’s support.

Given the reality of what is euphemistically called “negotiations for peace” or the “Israeli/Palestinian peace process,” that have been on-going for approximately 50 years with no results: no peace, no Palestinian state, no equity of living conditions, no acceptance of proposals to enforce terms negotiated, no borders established for either state, and no expectation of results, it would appear to most people of common sense that the process is flawed. To have America act as a broker for peace limiting the participants to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators is futile at best since the US is not an objective broker nor could it be. Delay benefits the partner in the process that wields the power; that is Israel. Palestinians suffer and die as the years go by and the world waits, wonders and watches with indifference.

It occurred to me, therefore, that Senate Resolution 185 needs some alterations, alterations that might be possible if our Senators were not shackled by their masters to unanimously adopt a continuation of the idiocy that maintains a status quo demanded by the Israelis but not their negotiating partners, the Palestinians. Hence I offer the following changes as a small measure of sense into a process marked by ceaseless nonsense.

Excerpts from S. Res. 185, approved by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday:

• Whereas a true and lasting peace between the people of Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties as the past 44 years of such negotiations clearly demonstrates;

• Whereas Hamas, an organization responsible for the death of more than 500 innocent civilians, including two dozen United States citizens, has been designated by the United States Government as a foreign terrorist organization, while Israel, an organization responsible for the deaths of 6,430 innocent Palestinian civilians including 1463 children since September of 2000, and 45,041 injured, has not been designated a foreign terrorist state;

• Whereas Hamas has demolished no Israeli homes while Israel has destroyed 24,873 Palestinian homes, and while Israel has built 236 illegal settlements on confiscated Palestinian land and Hamas has built none on Israeli land;

• Whereas the United States has provided Israel 9 million a day in 2011 for military assistance to ensure that it maintain the fourth largest military in the world to protect 6 million people while the US has the largest to protect 310 million and provides Hamas with nothing;

• Whereas Israel has refused to designate borders to define its state and unilaterally confiscates any Palestinian land it desires while the land belonging to the Palestinians has shrunk to less than 14% of its original area;

• Whereas, on April 22, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated, “We will not deal with nor in any way fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas (despite our expressed desire in 2006 to see Hamas become a credible political party in Palestine, and despite our on-going support of democracy in the mid-east acknowledging that Hamas’ victory at the polls, witnessed by UN observers, was recognized by the nations of the world as fulfilling the goals of a free people choosing their representatives, despite our expressed desires to see democracy in action in Palestine), we assert at this time that unless and until Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel and agreed to follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian Authority (even though we do not require that Israel renounce violence as the statistics above attest, nor do we require that Israel recognize the existence of a state for Palestinians nor accept its obligations as a member state of the UN to refrain from illegal land confiscation, return the land it has acquired illegally under international law and rejoin the community of nations of which it should be apart.”);

• Therefore, be it Resolved, that the Senate—baffled by the inherent contradictions imbedded in this resolution adopts the following resolution:

1. Reaffirms its strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states, a democratic, Jewish state of Israel and a viable, democratic Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition;

2. Affirms the necessity that a new peace process be created to be undertaken by the United Nations through an established authorized committee of its membership exclusive of the United States but with equitable representation of other nations including those with Arab populations;

3. Affirms the absolute necessity of a United Nations vote to recognize a Palestinian state prior to the creation of the UN Committee described above so that both Israel and Palestine enter the negotiations on an equal footing using the UN established 1967 borders as a base for negotiations in accordance with the President’s wishes;

4. Calls upon the President to announce that the United States will not veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the United Nations Security Council as a demonstration of America’s good will to bring a coordinated and internationally accepted resolution to the crisis in Israel and Palestine;

5. Affirms its intentions by announcing in advance that the United States will provide financial support for the development of a Palestinian state that will make it a viable member of the nations united for peace in the world; and

6. Will consider restrictions on aid to the state of Israel should it interfere with the recognition of a Palestinian State as adopted by the UN.

In all fairness to those who have not been able to see Senate Resolution 185, since our main stream media choose to omit such items lest the American people become informed, I offer below the resolution as presented by Daily Alert, an organ of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on behalf of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Needless to say, AIPAC has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that its Knesset passed Resolution 185; here’s how.
AIPAC News

Thousands of AIPAC Activists Ascend Capitol Hill to Lobby

“In a resounding show of support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, thousands of AIPAC Policy Conference elegates (sic) from all 50 states ascended Capitol Hill on Tuesday to conduct more than 500 lobbying meetings with members of Congress and their staff. At the top of the lobbying agenda was U.S. security assistance to Israel – the most tangible expression of American support for the Jewish state.” Where is the American peoples’ voice? I suggest that to be or not to be American would be answered if this resolution were reconsidered.

Excerpts from S. Res. 185, approved by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday:

• Whereas a true and lasting peace between the people of Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties;

• Whereas Hamas, an organization responsible for the death of more than 500 innocent civilians, including two dozen United States citizens, has been designated by the United States Government as a foreign terrorist organization;

• Whereas, on April 22, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated, “We will not deal with nor in any way fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless and until Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel and agreed to follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian Authority.”

• Therefore, be it Resolved, that the Senate–

1. Reaffirms its strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states, a democratic, Jewish state of Israel and a viable, democratic Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition;

2. Reiterates its strong opposition to any attempt to establish or seek recognition of a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated between leaders in Israel and the Palestinians;

3. Calls upon the President to announce that the United States will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the United Nations Security Council which is not a result of agreements reached between the Government of Israel and the Palestinians;

4. Will consider restrictions on aid to the Palestinian Authority should it persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies.

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