Caroline Glick on Annapolis

Some clear headed thoughts on the Annapolis conference by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post:

The Olmert government, backed by the leftist Israeli media, has presented the decision of Arab and Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan and Indonesia which do not accept Israel's right to exist to participate in the Annapolis conference as a major breakthrough. But this is nonsense. The representatives of these states will use their American-provided platform to condemn Israel, just as they use every other available international platform to do so.

Similarly, the Olmert government, backed by Israel's leftist media celebrates the 1947 UN resolution as if it were the foundation of Israel's international legitimacy. Not only is this incorrect, over the years, the perception that Israel owes its legitimacy to that UN resolution has had corrosive effect on Israel's ability to conduct foreign policy in a manner that advances its national interest. This effect is clearly evident in the Olmert government's handling of foreign policy.
Glick points out that Israel's legitimacy goes back to the League of Nations mandate to Great Britain who was charged with administering a "future Jewish state and not the United Nations who Glick believes Israeli governments have felt an unnecessary gratitude towards:
It was due to the British failure to destroy Zionism and block the Jewish people from establishing their state that the UN partition plan was brought into being. That is, far from establishing a Jewish state, 181 simply accepted an already existing national entity. Despite the best efforts of Britain, the Jews had already established their state in 1947. It would have existed even if the resolution had not passed.

Unfortunately, rather than recognize the actual legal foundation of Israel and though it, its own rights to Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, Israel acts as though its legitimate boundaries were determined by the UN Security Council. Its misplaced gratitude to the UN has caused successive Israeli government's to ignore and downplay the UN's mistreatment of Israel. For the past 40 years, far from living up to Israel's high opinion of it, the UN has been the primary engine behind the campaign to deny Israel's right to exist.
And that campaign is not countered by the current Israeli government, for which Glick has little more than contempt:
The problem that Israel's supporters face in contending with the Olmert government is the same as that experienced by Israelis who understand just how dangerous and self-defeating the government's foreign policy is. In both cases, the same blind officials who think they have accomplished something when Arab and Islamic states agree to sit at the same table as Israelis and condemn the Jewish state to their faces, and who view a legally insignificant failed UN resolution as a great diplomatic achievement, are calling the shots.

Until Israel gets leaders who run a foreign policy based on a recognition of reality and a celebration of the Jewish people's accomplishments in building and securing the state, Israel's supporters will continue to be confounded by the Israeli government, and the Israeli people will continue to be attacked and humiliated.
Read the rest for some fascinating background on the problems Israel has had with the UN.
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