ISRAEL DEFIES THE WORLD YET AGAIN:

Israel challenges the world and specifically Russia. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon looks President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Federation President, squarely in the eyes in Moscow and openly measures the Russian leader and Russians to test their resolve behind their efforts to put the Quartet Middle East Roadmap to a vote of the Security Council membership, seeking to have the Roadmap not only endorsed in principle by the Security Council, but to have the Roadmap designated as law, equally applicable to both the Palestinians and Israelis to follow, execute and uphold. So we shall see. Will the politicians of Israel continue along their well worn path of obstructionism and refusal to abide by international law, in continued indifference to the rest of the entire planet, or will the international community finally decide to put some bite behind its bark and say enough is finally enough in dealing with the intransigence and arrogance of Israel?

For the record, the difference between a United Nations General Assembly Resolution and a U.N. Security Council Resolution, is that the former has no rule, or effect, of law, it is an advisory opinion. Whereas passage of a Security Council Resolution is a law; that resolution then has the power of law and laws are to be upheld and respected by all. Except in the case of Israel.

On November 19, the U.N. Security Council voted on the measure brought to its members for a vote by Mr. Putin, the Russian Federation President, seeking passage of the resolution endorsing the Quartet Roadmap as the preferred instrument for seeking peace in the Middle East. SC Resolution 1515 passed unanimously. Israel and its political leaders had an immediate fit. Their response: 'Screw the world', we will do what we want, when we want and to hell with the rest of the planet. The laws of the planet and humanity do not apply to Israel, or to Jews, anywhere.

So, Mr. Putin, what will it be? The challenge has been issued by Israel and very publicly. How do you, the Security Council and the United Nations, plan to respond to that open challenge? There is a mechanism in place to provide for such possibilities and that is compliance enforcement through the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly. Failure of Israel to comply with the dictates and directives of international law must be met with stiff determination and a strong slap across the broadsides of Israel to force full and immediate compliance to SC Resolution 1515 through the ICJ, backed by a UN GA vote, imposing stiff sanctions and complete international isolation against Israel for failure to abide by international law, vis a vis SC Resolution 1515. Nothing gets into, or out of Israel until they abide by all rules and laws.

There is nothing Israel has to fear in accepting the full measure and intent of the Roadmap and Security Council Resolution 1515. There is nothing odious, or onerous, in the language of such which would cause grievous harm to the survival of Israel. If the intentions of Israel is truly peace and regional security and they never lie, then they should welcome the weight of the international community to push the Palestinians to commit to those measures which they must obligate under the Roadmap. The arguments presented by Israel against taking complimentary steps required by the Roadmap are vague and disingenuous and follows the same weak logic Israel has offered in the past: "Palestine must do everything first and completely and then we will decide that which we will do. We will pick and choose that which serves us unilaterally and pleases and benefits us alone". In other words, Israeli double speak on acceptance of the Roadmap translates accordingly: It will be invoked and spoken of favorably only in context of countering and heading-off Israeli compliance pressure from the international community and as a ploy to deflect criticism away from Israeli violations of the Roadmap and peace, while at the same time seeking to escalate the tensions and violence and then to blame the Palestinians for those Israeli inspired violations of the peace and security, as part of their calculated plans to acquire not only every single square meter of Palestinian land and property, but to create such abject poverty and humanitarian crisis to force the elimination, or removal, of every single Arab from the Judea and Samaria. The bottom line, the official Israeli position on the Roadmap is that it will never be accepted, or implemented by Israel. Never. Israel will do everything possible to violate the peace, blame the Palestinians and thereby they will claim self defense and security rights that gives them permission to throw away any obligation on their part to accept and follow the Roadmap, because they will falsely claim it is after all the failure of the Palestinians to embrace their responsibilities to the Roadmap, which Israel has no intentions of pursuing. The only interest Israel has is forcing the disarming of the Palestinian Resistance, thereby allowing them impunity to bully, subjugate and steal from the Palestinians at will, with no means for the Palestinians to protect themselves against Israel in any fashion. The end of the Palestinian people and Palestinian sovereignty is nigh upon us.

Taking into context the messages and comments from PM Sharon in the last few days and the utter disdain and disrespect Israel and the Sharon government has for the entire planet, there should be no mistaking what the intentions of Israel will be regarding the Roadmap, SC Resolution 1515, and how Israel plans to deal with the conflict and the Palestinian people. What remains to be seen is what the international community, the United Nations and the U.S. government will do about it.

The Palestinians have been meeting in Cairo to work out a truce to allow the two sides to begin anew joint obligations towards implementation of the Roadmap. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has worked hard to bring his side together to engage and reach out to the Israelis. The Palestinians are offering to do their part in return for Israel delivering a promise and action to do their part called for under the Roadmap. The Israelis have done nothing in return. In fact, Sharon vacillates between willing to meet with his Palestinian counterpart for meetings and certainly has expressed his steadfast unwillingness to obligate Israel to offer any type of gesture, or goodwill, to the Palestinians to begin a peace process. The Sharon response? "They want to meet we'll meet, they don't we won't." Sharon has said that Israel has nothing to offer and will offer nothing.

In fact, what Sharon has said and what the world can count on is that: 1.) Israel alone will decide if the Palestinians are doing enough to satisfy the demands of Israel in terms of complete subjugation and capitulation to the Israeli government and that no matter what they do it will never be good enough. Israel will see to that. 2.) At that point, the Israelis will announce the failure of the Palestinians to uphold its obligations to the Roadmap and Israel will therefore enforce their own unilateral plans for peace in the conflict with the Palestinian people. Ariel Sharon has announced this. He is preparing to present a plan to his government for approval and implementation. He has openly declared that he sees no hope of peace with the Palestinians even before he has met with any Palestinian delegation (in other words he will never pursue peace with the Palestinians and will do whatever it takes to upset the peace and to provoke the Palestinians) and therefore he states he will "enforce a unilateral Israeli vision of peace which will please and benefit only Israel and Jews." He has stated openly that those borders of his vision will follow the planned routing of the apartheid barrier wall under construction now, being erected appropriating massive amounts of Palestinian territory.

The end result is that the entirety of the Palestinian people will be virtual prisoners held captive within three compounds, of which access and egress will be controlled by a heavy handed Israeli security force and in which those cantonments will be squeezed with such devastating brutality and humanitarian hardship to exact the highest mortality and attrition to slowly choke the Palestinian people into oblivion. The plan will be to start with three compounds: the Gaza Strip and one in the north of the West Bank and one in the south of the West Bank. The goal will be to cause as much hardship and death as possible, thereby allowing consolidation of the Palestinian population from three encampments to two, from two to one and from one to oblivion.

With Security Council Resolution 1515 in place and a fact of law, it is time to force Israeli compliance to international law through the ICJ and by imposing the harshest isolation and sanctions against Israel to protect the Palestinian people and to force Israel to follow all laws every other nation must follow. Failure of Israel to accept, follow and uphold SCR 1515 is the mechanism to proceed.

There must be peace throughout the world and equal protection for all. How pathetic if we fail to act.

Patrick Johnston
VoxRx.org