Israel will simply stall and postpone a final settlement

[Comadreja]

Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law
By Francis A. Boyle, Clarity Press, Inc., 2003, 205 pp.
Reviewed by Michael Gillespie
For Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

http://www.bookmasters.com/clarity/b0021.htm

3/20/2003 – 1,613 words
Most observers know very well that Israeli Zionists displaced and dispossessed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and again in 1967, creating the world’s largest, most problematic, and longest running refugee crisis. Many understand, as well, that Israel’s continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and brutal oppression of the Palestinian people is aided and abetted by the U.S. government. But few have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of Palestine and Israel in international law, and even among those who consider themselves knowledgeable about the Palestinian cause, questions about the legal status of Palestine and Palestinians abound.
In a compelling new work, Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, renowned international jurist, author, and human rights champion Francis A. Boyle provides a comprehensive history of the legal wrangling over Palestine and Palestinian rights while setting out bold new legal strategies for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law arrives at a critical moment. As the extremist right-wing Sharon regime tightens it grip, the humanitarian crisis in Palestine grows dangerously acute, and the Bush administration’s so-called war against international terrorism expands, few are able to predict with any confidence the future of the heroic Palestinian struggle for liberty, justice, and national sovereignty. Boyle clarifies the confusing legal complexity of the crisis in Palestine, proposes creative new approaches to Israeli intransigence and deceit, and argues persuasively for the preservation of the established norms of international law at a time when the rule of law itself is seriously threatened.
Boyle, who teaches international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, is a seasoned participant in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, human rights, and an independent state. Drawing on his experience as legal advisor to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on the Palestinian Declaration of Independence beginning in 1987, and later as legal advisor to the Palestinian Delegation of the Middle East peace negotiations from 1991 to 1993, Boyle brings a wealth of knowledge to the public discussion of the crucial issue at the heart of the crisis in the Middle East. But Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law was not written exclusively for the edification of legal scholars. A master of the history of international mandates, protocols, conventions, and resolutions that address directly or are relevant to Palestinian aspirations and rights, Boyle decisively charts a course through the legal labyrinth with a lucid and inviting style the layperson will appreciate as much for its vitality as for its clarity.

Emphasizing the weight of history and the gravity of the worsening crisis in Palestine, which U.S. policy makers have been tempted to discount, Boyle writes: “The American people cannot even begin to comprehend how to deal with the problem of international terrorism in the Middle East unless they first come to grips with the fact that the Regan/Bush Sr. administration was directly responsible for the perpetuation of one of the great international crimes in the post World War II era against the Palestinians and Muslim people in Lebanon. . . . Until that time, Americans will continue to become targets of attack by these frustrated and aggrieved individuals throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean.”
Boyle’s penetrating analyses of Israeli and American roles in the crisis that has destabilized the Middle East for over fifty years are as cogent as his criticisms are fearless and his warnings prescient. In his December 1, 1992, Memorandum of Law, Boyle advised the Palestinian leadership against what he perceived as a fatally flawed interim agreement, writing, “. . . because of Israeli stalling and because of American presidential election politics, there could be a twelve-year, sixteen-year, or even twenty-year interval between the Interim Agreement and the so-called Final Settlement no matter what the documents might say about some ‘interconnection.’ Indeed, if the Israelis have their way with their supporters in the Democratic and Republican parties and in the United States Congress, you will never see that Final Settlement. The Israelis, with American help, will simply stall, drag out, and indefinitely postpone and delay a Final Settlement while they continue to kill your people, steal your land, and drive the rest of you out of your homes.” (more)

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear: Harry S Truman

[aquart]

1. Wow. I disagree in the very first sentence.

Israeli "Zionists" or Israeli citizens? Lordy, what a difference a word makes.

Any mention in here of Hamas' refusal to accept anything less than the destruction of Israel? Myself, I would find that a problem in any peace process.

But it's Israel's fault.

Any mention that peace would probably require Arafat to render an accounting of Palestinian funds....? No, I bet not.

Just remember: it's Israel's fault. Always. Because they're "Zionists."

That's the ticket.

[Lithos]

2. Locking

Per I/P Guidelines

Not a recent news or op-ed story.