The U.S. Vetoes UN Recognition of a Palestinian State

Today, the U.S,. as a permanent member of the 15-member UN Security Council, vetoed a long-sought resolution by Palestinians for the Security Council to recommend that the 193-member UN General Assembly upgrade Palestinian observer status of the UN to present recognition of a Palestinian state. As a keen observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, and an author of this subject, I have advocated for the past forty plus years that Palestinians are entitled to their own independent, sovereign state in The Levant. Thus, for me this U.S. veto today that is against Palestinian recognition is shameful.

At the same time, I strongly support the existence of the State of Israel. But, unlike Christian Zionists, I do not support carte blanche everything the State of Israel does, such as killing 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the past six months and a few more days in its current war there against Hamas. Yet, I agree that Hamas is a terrorist, Islamic organization that has been very detrimental to Palestinians in its governing of the Gaza Strip and that it is nearly impossible to extricate Hamas from the Strip largely due to its tunnel system therein. So, it’s a mess!

Riyad Monsour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, was pretty much correct by saying today of Palestinians, “Our right to self determination is a natural right–a historical right–to live in our homeland Palestine as an independent state that is free and that is sovereign.” My only hesitancy in full acceptance of this statement is that “our homeland Palestine” requires definition, to which all do not agree.

Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said of the vote, “The shameful proposal was rejected. Terrorism will not be rewarded.” Wrong! That statement is shameful. Israel has always blocked Palestinians having their own state, which is so selfish. It is unfair for Jews to have had their own state all these years–75 years–and Palestinians to not likewise have had their own state. The reason for the terrorism, which I don’t advocate, is that Palestinian anger has grown all these years due to their dispossession of land and disenfranchisement as a people who have certainly, through the years, developed a national identity.

Today’s U.S. statement of its veto, in my opinion, is shameful as well. Vedant Patel, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said, “It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners.” BALONEY! That has been the U.S. position for all of those past decades, and look what it has gotten the Palestinians. ZERO! In fact, there has been no negotiations, thus no peace process, since 2014, thus the past ten years. And why is that? Israel prevents it, and the U.S. puts up with that position by continuing to give Israel over $3 billion per year for many decades.

President Joe Biden has not been helpful about this matter, though I think he’s doing better than Donald Trump would. Biden said recently that there needs to be a Palestinian state. Yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden’s long-time friend, immediately retorted that he would never support the creation of a Palestinian state. Well, in my opinion, the U.S. should not keep giving Israel $3.8 billion per year then. And the U.S. should have been on board decades ago for UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

Palestinian envoy Mansour explained, “All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations–to be treated as equals, equals to other nations and states, to live in freedom and dignity, in peace and security in our ancestral land.” What is your ancestral land? That is the big question. I think both Jews and Palestinians often get the answer to that question wrong. But regarding Palestinians, what if they have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people, as I suspect they do and about which I have often written. But Israel owns those 3,000-year old Philistine skeletons at Ashkelon, and Israel obviously will not allow that uncorrupted DNA be compared to the DNA of modern Palestinians, as I have been constantly insisting. If a substantial link was proved, “the land of the Philistines” that the Bible so often tells us about would be that “ancestral land” Mr. Mansour is talking about, which, according to present circumstances, is a very expanded Gaza Strip.

Yet–as I constantly say in this blog and is the thesis of my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia–I do not think the traditional two-state solution is the right one for Palestinian statehood. This conflict can only be settled with a two-state solution, but not with a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. I believe Bible prophecy indicates there will be a Palestinian state and that it will be a very expanded Gaza Strip with Israel annexing the West Bank, and this arrangement can be seen easily from the map on the front cover of my book.

[Half of Kermit’s book, Palestine Is Coming, and updates are available for free reading at kermitzarley.com by clicking in the menu on Theology and then On Palestine.]