- Jul 10, 2003
- 27,341
Sorry I missread.
When you wrote "I believe any step we can take to help create the environment for a two state solution will be good thing, no matter how small". I skimmed over 'the environment for'. You perhaps should have added 'initial discussions about' to avoid neurodiverse types like myself quibbling. Anyway, let's quibble a bit more.....
Presently Israel (well, Bibi) is not interested in a two state solution. So the process that must happen (in reverse order) is this:
Create a two state solution
Get Israel and Palestine to agree a two state solution
Get Israel and Palestine to agree to a permanent ceasefire
Get Israel and Palestine to meet to discuss the creation of a permanent ceasefire
So I am having trouble working out where to fit this in:
Get Israel to agree to recognize Palestine as a legitimate independent state
This would need to be the very first thing (at the bottom of my list) surely, in order for the UK recognizing Palestine as a legitimate independent state to have any relevance? Otherwise why bother? I may be wrong but I do not see this as being remotely in the minds of Israel (Bibi and the opposition parties) whose number one imperative right now is to free Israeli hostages (and arguably do massive amounts of smiting). So there is a danger that the UK recognizing Palestine now may be an irrelevance at best, and something else to annoy Israel about at worst.
I am happy to be corrected, as it 'feels' to me like a 'good' thing to do to 'recognize' Palestine, but I would advocate it (and agitate for it) only if it will have only positive consequences.
To add to my 'it may not be as simple as that' narrative, I recall how Corbyn and others promoted Irish Nationalism in Ulster during 'the troubles' (something for which many NSC readers, especially ex-service people, will never forget or forgive). Form afar it may seem that recognizing the legitimacy of a united Ireland (how ironic that the call from Corbyn-left was for a one nation solution in that conflict) was a noble gesture in pursuit of peace. In fact it was irrelevant and potentially dangerous. Unknown to Corbyn, the IRA signalled an end to hostilities when they contact HMG secret service with the message "The war is over". The Major government had started negotiations - albeit rather uncomfortably - and these were taken to a new level by Blair, eventually resulting in the peace process. There was no 'recognition' of a 'united Ireland' state. Corbyn meeting the IRA after the Brighton bombing years earlier may have been well-intentioned, but now it looks crass. And it certainly played no role in the eventual resolution.
So.....maybe lots of nations unilaterally recognizing Palestine may do no harm. Recognizing the Turkish republic of North Cyprus (we don't) is another example. But I fear that unilaterally recognizing Palestine may do more harm than good. I don't know for sure, so I can't immediately agree with you 'every little bit helps' perspective. I am not a diplomat and don't understand diplomacy so I may be wrong.
I'm so tempted to TL.DR
But seriously, the more countries that actually recognise Palestine as a state, the more pressure is put on Israel to stop the current killing and negotiate a two state solution. I'm sure that's what every sensible person wants but can't be achieved all the time it is claimed that there aren't two states. There's currently north of 140 countries recognise two states, it's rising constantly and the UK aren't one of them.
I understand the reasons that the UK and America don't want to recognise a Palestinian state, but those reasons are from over 70 years ago and tens of thousands of innocents have died just in the last year alone, so personally I can't justify what we did 70 years ago as a reason.
Is it really that bigger issue for the UK to recognise the state of palestine and take a tiny step towards stopping the current slaughter
I thought you always claimed not to be led by political dogma and would always base your opinions on what is actually happening. And trust me, what is happening on a daily basis is not good and we should all do anything we can to help
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