Saturday, October 8, 2011

STEVEN PLAUT: A VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE?


MIDEAST OUTPOST 

   As you know, much of the world is getting ready to recognize a “state” for “Palestinians.”  The US may veto the vote in the Security Council to set up “Palestine” in Israeli lands, and then again maybe it will not veto it.  Other countries are going ahead with plans to vote for “Palestine” in the General Assembly, to grant “Palestine” embassy space, to grant it formal recognition, and so on.  After years of paying lip service to the righteous need for granting “Palestinians” a state, Netanyahu and his cowardly crew are scratching their heads about what to do and how to stop all this.  The best Bibi has come up with is a plan to give a speech in that building on the East River near 42nd street.            I have a better idea.  My suggestion is this.           
                The “Palestinian” movement is nothing more than a local separatist movement, composed of Arabs seeking to gain separatist independence. Arabs already have 22 states.   Since almost all countries in the world have their own domestic separatist movements, the only reasonable response by Israel to votes by other countries in favor of the “Palestinian” separatist movement is a decision by Israel to recognize the separatist movements in those countries, to grant them embassy space and official diplomatic recognition.          
                Here are some examples:           
                If France votes for a “Palestinian state,” as it is expected to do, Israel must immediately grant diplomatic status and recognition to the National Front for the Liberation of Corsica, to the separatist Savoyard League and the Nissa Rebela, to the separatist Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne and Front de Libération de la Bretagne, and to the French Basque separatists.        
                If Spain votes for a “Palestinian state,” as it is expected to do, Israel must immediately grant diplomatic status and recognition to the ETA and other Basque separatists, to the Catalan separatists, as well as to the separatist movements in Castille, Leon, Andalusia, Cantabria, Galicia, Aragon, and Asturias.            
                If Belgium votes for a “Palestinian state,” as it is expected to do, Israel must immediately grant diplomatic status and recognition to both the Flemish and Walloon separatist movements.            
                If Holland votes for a “Palestinian state,” as it is expected to do, Israel must immediately grant diplomatic status and recognition to the Frisian separatist movement.               
                Turkey of course is leading the campaign for “Palestine,” which is why Israel should recognize the Armenian, Kurdish, Arab, and other ethnic nationalist movements inside Turkey.  And let’s hear nothing about Armenians already having their own state outside the Turkish borders.       
                The UK will probably vote against it, but just in case it votes in favor, Israel should then recognize the separatist movements of Cornwall, Guernsey, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, Northumberland, Wessex, Yorkshire, and of course also the independence of Wales, Scotland and Ulster.               
                Russia plans to vote for “Palestinian independence.”  Israel should respond by recognizing all of the separatist movements within Russia, a full list of which is much too long to reproduce here. 
                If Italy votes for “Palestine,” there are so many regional independence and separatist movements inside Italy that could be recognized that space does not allow their complete listing.     
                The Sami independence movements in Norway, Sweden and Finland should be recognized at once.  Ditto for the Faroes Islands independence movement in Denmark.   If Switzerland votes in favor, Israel should recognize the Jura regional separatist movement.                 
                The above list is just for European countries.  Most of South America has already recognized “Palestine,” even before any UN vote.  If Argentina and or Chile votes in favor, Israel needs to recognize the Mapuche separatists in those countries.  If Bolivia votes in favor, the Santa Cruz separatists should be recognized.  If Brazil votes in favor, Israel should recognize the separatist movements in Rio Grande do Sul.   Venezuela will certainly vote in favor, which is why Israel must recognize the independence of Zulia and Maracaibo. Mexico is certain to vote in favor, which is why the Zapatista movement in Chiapas needs a nice embassy in Israel.    
                Moslem states have their own domestic separatist movements and these are deserving of special support and recognition by Israel.  In Iran, aside from the obvious Kurdish separatists, there are Assyrian, Baluchi, Azeri, and Arab regional separatist movements, all in need of an Embassy.  (And let’s hear no nonsense about how Iranian Arabs have no right to independence because Arabs already have 22 states!  Azeris already have a state, you say?  Since when does that matter??)  Syria of course also has Kurdish and Assyrian separatists.  Pakistan has Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, and Singh separatist movements. Indonesia has oodles of separatists.       
                The number of separatist movements in other parts of the world is so large that Israel will have to build an entire new diplomatic city east of Ariel just to house all the embassies it needs to establish for the separatist movements in countries voting for “Palestinian statehood.”  
Haifa Economics Professor Steven Plaut blogs at: http://stevenplaut.blogspot.com/