Is Ari Shavit right about this?
The writing is on the wall: 2011 is going to be a diplomatic 1973. In September and October the UN General Assembly will decide whether to establish a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. The international community will recognize a Palestinian state.
At that moment, every Israeli apartment in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood will become illegal. Every military base in the West Bank will be contravening the sovereignty of an independent UN member state. The Palestinians will not be obligated to accept demilitarization and peace and to recognize the occupation.
Ethan Bronner thinks so. And, because the recognition vote will take place in the UN General Assembly and not in the Security Council, the United States cannot exercise a veto to protect Israel.
There are a lot of questions to answer about this. It would seem an inopportune time to recognize a Palestinian state. It would be nice if the governance of the territories were not split between Fatah and Hamas, for example. And what about those 1967 borders? I suppose that’s the default. After all, anything else would require some negotiation. Right?
And then there is trying to figure out what it would all mean.
