Palestine: A State Without a State

What does it really mean to be a country? Other than believing that you are one and having borders, it also means everyone else thinks you are a country too.

This month the Palestinians are planning to go to the UN for recognition of their state-ness. Anyone who knows anything about Palestine, knows that all things considered they basically have been a country for a long time. Unfortunately, Israel has a say in the matter.

Now, in 1948 when Israel declared themselves a state after a UN resolution granting them rights to former British Mandate Palestine, no one said whooooaaa, we need to have bilateral talks first - at the time many people did not consider the people living in British Mandate Palestine to have a say in anything. The rest of the world didn't stop to consider the Palestinians people until they rallied the support of the other Arab countries to attack newly created Israel. That woke Israel and the rest of the world up pretty fast.

For some reason or another (Holocaust guilt), America seems incapable of severing its "special friendship" with Israel even though America's relationship with Israel causes America an undue amount of tension between itself and other Middle Eastern countries. While I am no conspiracy theorist about 9/11, America's relationship with Israel certainly complicated feelings of sympathy from many Middle Easterners over the event.

Just the other day, a pro-Palestinian group launched a campaign in several American cities. They posted advertisements in subways asking Americans to stop sending aid money to Israel's military as the military helps perpetuate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians - not least of all between West Bank Israeli settlers and their Palestinian neighbors.

The reaction? The MTA (New York City's transportation authority) got lambasted by angry New York City residents saying that the ad was offensive - even though the ad displays pictures of families and no profanity.

What makes me personally angry about this situation is that Americans largely one do not realize the extent of support given to Israel and two, do not fully comprehend the history of the Palestinian struggle or the injustices done to them. Not that that stops many from having an opinion on the subject, though.

I wish President Obama would stand up for what is right rather than what is easy. It is understandable that there a lot of things high on his agenda these days (jobs, the economy, re-election, jobs), but if he wants to make good on any of the nice pretty speeches he gave throughout the Arab Spring about the hope for democracy and helping peoples achieving their deep-seated dreams of controlling their own sovereignty, then there is really only one thing he can do: allow the US to vote yes to a Palestinian state.

Because it already exists.


egypt, middle+east, arab+spring, islam,
israel