Yesterday, Sweden became the first EU member and the third Western European nation to recognize Palestinian statehood. The others are Cyprus and Malta. Such recognition is no more than a symbolic gesture. But it is a public announcement that Sweden now takes not only a political stand advocating the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but that it now recognizes the State of Palestine even though Palestinians don’t have an actual land they can claim as sovereignly their own.
Israel immediately retaliated by recalling its ambassador to Sweden. France’s foreign minister then stated to the media that France planned to do the same, though he did not reveal when. The UK Parliament recently voted in favor of Palestinian statehood. But Prime Minister Cameron said he would not yet recognize Palestinian statehood. This move by Sweden could be significant since Sweden is historically a neutral country regarding international politics. Thus, other European countries could follow Sweden’s lead in recognizing the State of Palestine.
East Jerusalem and the West Bank are part of what the UN calls “occupied territory” which Israel gained possession of in the 1967 Six Day War. According to UN bylaws, UN members who gain territory from war are to afterwards return that land to their enemy in negotiation. Israel, being a member of the UN, is supposed to return that land to the Palestinians. But Israel constantly endangers the peace process with the Palestinians by building Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, especially in and near East Jerusalem. The U.S., Israel’s number one ally, has always condemned Israel’s building of these settlements. Yet the U.S. has never gone further by applying pressure on Israel about this matter. One way it could do so is to reduce or stop its foreign aid of $3 billion per year to Israel, which has been going on for decades. Thus, the U.S. loses respect from many nations because of this.
After the fifty-day war this summer between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel announced a plan to build 2,600 settlements in East Jerusalem. That nixed a hoped-for startup of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Then Monday, Israel announced plans to build another 1,000 Jewish settlements in the East Jerusalem. Furthermore, due to an incident this week Israel closed Arab access to the al-Aqas mosque on the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary and installed a 1,000 police force there. Many Palestinians were getting riled up and calling for a third Intifada. Only weeks after Gaza residents suffered devastating damage from the war and 2,000 Palestinians killed to less than 100 Jews killed, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is heating up again.
UN diplomats say the two-state solution is being gravely imperiled because of so much Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a total of over 500,000 Jewish settlers there, the West Bank Security Barrier that causes much hardship for Palestinians, and much more. In fact, an increasing number of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians are calling for a return to the ridiculous one-state solution, which cannot possibly work.
Readers of this blog know that I claim the Palestinians and international community have been advocating for the wrong two-state solution. Since the plausibility of theirs is increasingly diminishing, it’s about time they consider another, such as the New Philistia two-state solution which I have been advocating for over thirty years now. Why? It’s in the Bible! Read my book–Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia. It is becoming far more relevant than when it was published, in 1990. I think the developing situation in the direction of my proposal is proving that I’m right. Right about what? New Philistia is not only a proposal, it’s an interpretation of ten Old Testament prophecies which I think show how this conflict is going to turn out.
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