The Real Surprise at the U.N.

So Britain, France and three other European countries are recalling their ambassadors from Israel.  This is no shock, really.  What is astonishing, however, is that they don't seem to realize the extent to which their own actions encouraged the very settlement construction they are now protesting.  

That Mahmoud Abbas's gambit at the UN last week would be successful was really never in doubt.  After all, anyone who has been paying any attention to the UN realizes that it is now basically controlled by the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.  This is illustrated, for example, by an issue that had nothing to do with Israel -- Ban Ki-Moon's statement in September of this year about the maker of the pseudo-inflammatory film Innocence of Muslims.  Ban said:  "When some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others' values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected in such a way." (Reported at  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-protests-un-idUSBRE88I1CW20120919.)  Such a statement, advocating an abridgment of free speech when the speech happens to offend Muslims, can only be viewed as a concession to the OIC.  And no one could possibly think that an organization that included the late Colonel Moammar Khadafi's Libya on something called a HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL could possibly be an objective body.  

Yes, passage of Abbas's resolution was a given.  What was shocking, however, was the lopsidedness of the vote.  Only a single country in all of Europe, the Czech Republic, voted "No."  Every other European nation, including those now condemning the settlements, either abstained or voted "Yes,"  despite the fact that the resolution was nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Palestinian Authority to circumvent the peace process and to avoid having to make such basic concessions as renouncing violence and acknowledging that Israel has a right to exist as the world's only Jewish nation.  

An often-repeated manta is that when Israel takes unilateral actions, this weakens moderates on the Palestinian side and strengthens the extremist factions.  Few seems to acknowledge that this works both ways.  When Palestinians take unilateral action, this weakens the Israeli left and moderates, and strengthens the extremists on the Israeli side.  And when Palestinians take unilateral action with the world's blessing, well, the Israeli left does not stand a chance.  

Virtually all of Europe has turned its back on Israel, and the U.S., under President Obama, has been, at best, fickle in its support.  As much as it is nice to know that least two countries, the Czech Republic and Canada, support Israel, neither is a military powerhouse.  With the rest of the world abandoning it, Israel must stand on its own.  No wonder, then, that the extremists is Israel have taken hold, and that Israel feels that it must take whatever actions it deems necessary to protect itself -- including connecting Jerusalem to the nearby settlement town of Ma'ale Adumim by building up the area in between.  

As for Ban's pronouncement that the settlements are a "fatal blow" to peace, well, the fatal blow came last Thursday in Ban's own organization.  By Friday there was simply no peace process left to safeguard, and Israel acted accordingly.