| « | Term Limits For Thee But Not For Me |
»
|
|
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Borders
This is quite an indicator of what to expect from Israel's swiftly maturing pullout:
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz urged the Palestinians to impose order and prevent attacks on Israel from Gaza — or face a tough response. "We shall know how to act decisively and intensively in the face of any terrorism," he said.Abbas took a tough line against the border crossings.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for the border to be stormed," he said. "We must resolve this problem in a civilized manner."
Israel is nearly through with the creation of a de facto Palestinian state. Indeed, your Curmudgeon expects Israel to submit the West Bank / Gaza territories to the United Nations as a candidate for membership. It will make a pretty tableau: Israel proposing recognition of the sovereignty of the people the tyrants and oligarchs in the UN have used for decades as a stick to beat the Israelis with. Would the satraps of the Muslim Middle East dare to vote to admit the new Palestine to their number, with Israel as its sponsor? Would they dare not to?
On the sovereignty of that embryonic entity lies Israel's greatest hope for peace.
If the new Palestine is deemed sovereign, it will acqure the burdens of statehood, which include observance of the laws of war. To send an armed man across another country's borders, without explicit prior approval by that country, is an act of war. To admit to being unable to control the movement of persons across one's borders is a renunciation of sovereignty. If would-be Palestinian statesmen don't realize this yet, they soon will.
Once Palestinian statehood is recognized, the full range of options, diplomatic and military, will open to Israel for dealing with further terrorist attacks on its soil. Since a sovereign nation is also assumed to be self-policing, the dirty, dangerous job of keeping order among the most violent people in the Middle East will no longer lie on Israel's shoulders. Further assistance of that sort would have to come from Palestine's Muslim neighbors, who have refused it for fifty-five years.
It looks like a pure win for Israel, despite Abbas's nonsense about "storming the borders." Should Israeli armor cross into the West Bank or Gaza after the pullout is complete, it won't be to apprehend one man, or to punish a small group. Sober Palestinians, if there are any, should ponder that long and hard.
