There he was, the Palestinian Authority’s
Mahmoud Abbas, lying on the floor kicking his feet in anger over the
U.S. veto of a resolution for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security
Council. Of course, I am exaggerating about the 88-year-old on the
floor, but his reaction to the American veto was not too far from a
2-year-old’s tantrum.
Notwithstanding that the Biden
administration pressed Abbas not to go ahead with the bid for statehood,
the administration’s veto must have come as somewhat of a shock to the
Palestinians because, after all, it was U.S. President Joe Biden’s and
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s talk about establishing a
Palestinian state as part of the planning for the “day after” Israel
vanquishes Hamas in Gaza.
In the aftermath of the vote, Abbas told the official Palestinian Wafa
news agency that “the hostile [U.S.] positions” … “have generated
unprecedented anger among the Palestinian people and the region’s
populations, potentially pushing the region towards further instability,
chaos and terrorism.” As if he wasn’t angry enough, he threatened: “The
Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the
United States to ensure the protection of our people’s interests, our
cause and our rights.”
Trying to soften the blow, U.S. deputy
ambassador Robert Wood told the U.N. Security Council that the veto
“does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an
acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between
the parties” and that there are “unresolved questions” on whether
Palestine meets the criteria to be considered a state.
The creation of a Palestinian state now
would be dangerous for Israel—an indefensible border being the main
reason—but also bad for the United States for several reasons.
• Fomenting instability. The
Palestinians have a long record of fomenting regional instability. In
1970, they provoked an armed conflict with King Hussein of Jordan that
resulted in the deaths of thousands. They instigated a civil war in
Lebanon that resulted in the deaths of thousands. It’s only a matter of
time before a Palestinian state would stir up turmoil and mayhem
throughout the region. That kind of chaos in such a sensitive part of
the world is the last thing that America needs.
• Proxy for rogue states. The
Palestinians have always allied themselves with the most extreme and
aggressive regimes in the world. In the old days, it was the Soviet
Union; today, it’s Iran, China, Putin’s Russia and North Korea. How long
before a state of “Palestine” invites Iranian “volunteers,” and obtains
Iranian and North Korean missiles and drones? It would become a proxy
state for the world’s worst rogue regimes. How would an Iranian, Chinese
or Russian port in Gaza be good for America?
• Against American values.
For almost three decades, we have seen what kind of state it would be
from the P.A.’s practices. Islam will be the state religion. Elections
will be held rarely, if ever. (Mahmoud Abbas is in the 19th year of a
four-year term of office.) Critics of the regime will be suppressed.
Labor unions will be harassed. Prisoners will be tortured. Christians
will be intimidated. Women will be second-class citizens. The Islamist
and authoritarian values embodied by the Palestinian state will be the
exact opposite of the democratic and pluralistic values that we
Americans cherish.
• Enemy of America. A
Palestinian state would be an actively anti-American state in word and
deed. How do we know? Just look at what the P.A. has been teaching its
people—and especially, its children—for the past three decades. Its
media and schools portray the United States as racist, colonial and
war-mongering. They accuse the United States of carrying out the 9/11
attacks, spreading disease and immorality, and conspiring against Islam.
A Palestinian state will promote hatred of
America, vote against the United States in international forums and
align itself with radical Third World regimes. The world already has
plenty of America-hating countries. Why do we need yet another?
One of the more remarkable things about
the P.A.’s behavior has been its habit of taking $500 million from the
United States every year, and then turning around and paying salaries
and pensions to terrorists in Israeli prisons and their families, as
well as naming streets, parks, schools and sports competitions after
terrorists who have murdered Americans. If this is how the P.A. acts
now, when it desperately needs U.S. support for its statehood campaign,
just imagine how it will act when it has a sovereign state and no longer
needs such aid.
• Undermining America’s ally.
Israel has always been America’s closest friend and most reliable ally.
As a matter of principle, and as a matter of strategic wisdom, the
United States should always stand by its friends. To set up a
Palestinian state along Israel’s borders would pose a grave danger to
our ally. It would also undermine the confidence of all of America’s
allies and call into doubt the value of its promises.
• Dragging America into overseas conflicts.
Israel is certainly grateful for U.S. moral and logistical support
since Oct. 7 but will never ask the United States to put American
soldiers’ boots on the ground. But if a weakened, shrunken Israel would
be in danger of being overrun by a
Palestinian-Iranian-Chinese-Russian-North Korean onslaught, causing
tremendous pressure on the United States to take direct military action
rather than see its closest ally destroyed. Thus, Washington could find
itself dragged into an overseas conflict that was entirely preventable.
The U.S. veto of statehood was a good
thing. In every conceivable way, a Palestinian state would be bad for
America—bad for American values, bad for American interests and bad for
America’s allies.
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