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How Abbas can counter Netanyahu’s maneuver

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses time and again the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people to sideline the issues of occupation and settlements.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting for the Central Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 19, 2015 file photo  REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/File photo - RTSR1TC
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“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed,” the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (15:22) states, attributed to King Solomon. "For by stratagems/scheming thou shalt make thy war” (Proverbs 24:6), the wisest of men is said to have counseled. The PLO conducted a military war against Israel that was sorely lacking in council and ended in failure. On the other hand, since the organization exchanged the military front for the diplomatic one, it has displayed fairly impressive planning and scheming capabilities. The dramatic turnaround came in 1988, when Chairman Yasser Arafat convinced the Palestinian National Council to adopt UN Security Council Resolution 242 and to accept a Palestinian state in accordance with the 1967 borderlines with Israel. That was when the road was paved to the 1991 Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid, the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinians, international recognition of the Palestinians’ right to a state and sweeping rejection of Israel’s settlement enterprise.

The struggle for implementation of the Palestinian people’s right to become a full member of the family of nations is nearing a decisive stage. In the coming weeks, US President Barack Obama will decide whether to bring Palestine into the United Nations through the narrow window between the Nov. 8 presidential elections and the changing of the guard at the White House. If the Palestinians lose this round, they risk losing their diplomatic achievements of the past 28 years.

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