The Hindu : Towards a Palestine State?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 18, 2002

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Towards a Palestine State?

THE UNITED NATIONS Security Council has at long last made a ringing endorsement of the "vision" of a sovereign state that the hapless Palestinian people can call their own at some future date. Now, the United States piloted the Security Council's Resolution 1397, which underlines the U.N.'s "affirmation" of this "vision". As a result, a welcome ideological shift seems to have occurred in the international political arena towards the recognition of a fair settlement of the prolonged Israel-Palestinian conflict. Not surprisingly, therefore, Resolution 1397 speaks of a future scenario of two states — the existing Israel and a possible Palestine — within ``secure and recognised borders''. The immediate context of the Security Council's proactive role is of two dimensions — the ballistic pace of the spiralling violence involving the Palestinians and the Israelis at one level and second, the U.S.-led globalised "campaign" against the politics of terror. The context itself explains the Council's definitive call for an immediate cessation of such violence. Given the growing unease among the Islamic nations over certain perceived aspects of America's anti-terror "campaign", it is easy to understand the urgency implicit in the U.N.'s advocacy of a Muslim-friendly gesture such as the creation of a viable Palestine state. Suitably emphasised is the point that Israel and a future Palestine state will not be incompatible entities. The U.N.'s broad formula for their peaceful coexistence is to be seen in this light. The borders of the two states are proposed to be drawn in such a manner as to be ``secure'', the determination of which will depend on political and military logistics. An equally important prescription for peace is that the two states be recognised by each other and by the global community.

On paper, the new U.N. plan is much more than a mere diplomatic palliative for the current crisis of violence that occurs on both sides of the Palestinian-Jewish schism. Manifest at one level is the fury of the Palestinians over what they perceive to be America's heightened patronage of the Israelis as a direct consequence of its worldwide ``war on terror''. Intersecting the Palestinian wrath at another level is Israel's militarist overdrive in the name of weeding out the sources of terror in West Asia. The U.N.'s definitive goal is a sustainable political solution that can be found only over time. This is certainly sensible, given the constraints under which the world body functions. A dominant strand of thought within the U.N. system at this stage seems to be one of expecting the U.S. to sort out the basic Israeli-Palestinian dispute and to do so by creating the framework for the negotiations too.

Significant indeed is the fact that Resolution 1397 pointedly mentions the Tenet work plan for a possible truce and the Mitchell report regarding a negotiated settlement. Both these documents are American contributions, and the U.S. President, George W. Bush, has spoken of how Washington "engineered" the finer aspects of this U.N. resolution. With Mr. Bush calling upon Israel, a long-time protege of the U.S., to rein in its disproportionately aggressive militarism, it is becoming clear that Washington does not want to lose its leverage in respect of some key sections of the Arab-Muslim bloc. Washington cannot afford to alienate itself from this entire bloc even as Mr. Bush weighs whether his "war against terror" should be extended to Iraq and Iran besides also the other alleged "rogue" elements who might be developing or scouting for weapons of mass destruction. Israel itself is increasingly becoming vulnerable in this situation. Whatever be Mr. Bush's calculations in seeking to reassure the Arabs, the question of a future Palestinian state is a just cause to espouse.

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