Plan could mean war

RHONDA SPIVAK

Gershon Baskin, co-chief executive officer of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information (IPCRI), reminded attendees that he was the one who "put forth" a proposal to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, which would have the United Nations Security Council recognize a Palestinian state, even if an agreement is not reached between Israel and the Palestinians.

Baskin made his claim at IPCRI's Education for Peace conference, held on Aug. 8 at Talitha Kumi, an evangelical Lutheran school adjacent to Beit Jala and Bethlehem. Regarding his proposal, Baskin said, "He [Solana] heard it first from me, but it's fine, let Solana get the credit."

Baskin asserted that his proposal would work if the United States would not use its veto power to prevent the United Nations Security Council from recognizing the existence of the state of Palestine within provisional borders.

Baskin told the conference, attended by Israelis and Palestinians, that about two weeks prior to the conference, he had met for "secret talks in the U.S" with five Palestinians, five Americans and five Israelis.

According to Baskin's proposal, "President Abbas will submit a request to the Security Council for the state of Palestine to be granted full membership in the UN. Without a U.S. veto, the request will receive the necessary nine or 15 votes within the Security Council (probably even the full 15 votes).

"The motion will pass through the required two-thirds majority of the General Assembly and the state of Palestine will become a full member state obligated by the UN Charter.

"At that moment, the Israeli occupation of one member state of another will require a new Security Council resolution that will supersede 242 and all other resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Baskin's proposal states: "The implementation process would have to include several elements – the resolution would state the principle that the international community is prepared to use chapters VI and VII of the Charter and to deploy international forces (military, police and civilian) to supervise the Israeli withdrawal from Palestine."

He also proposed that once this happens, the Palestinian Authority ought to declare new elections. He proposed that a condition for running in these elections would be recognition of the Palestinian state and, therefore, the state of Israel.

When asked about Baskin's proposal in an interview this summer, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said, "It is nonsense. The United States will not impose a solution on Israel, let alone the United Nations."

Danny Simon, director of the Israeli government press office, responded saying, "I respect Gershon Baskin's right to have his opinion, but Gershon Baskin represents zero percent of the Israeli public.... There's an elected [Israeli] government and an elected opposition.... We need to find solutions that are acceptable to the Israeli public."

Noting the proposal's framework, Likud Minister Benny Begin said it was a "rather strange and queer" idea that "someone may have in mind to impose a plan on Israel and its elected government which it doesn't agree to." He added, "I don't see it as appropriate or feasible ... I can't see any reasonable country supporting such an action."

Regarding the charge that Canada is providing funds to IPCRI, Begin said, "If Canada is funding Baskin, I imagine that they don't realize what he has been proposing [or doing]. I can hardly imagine that the Canadian government, a country that is friendly to Israel, would be supporting this, if they knew."

When asked whether the Canadian government funds IPCRI, Rodney Moore of the media relations office of Foreign Affairs and National Trade in Ottawa responded via e-mail:

"The government of Canada supports IPCRI discussions through funding with the Network for Peace Fund of the Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA].

"This is the one current project that Canada is supporting with the IPCRI. The aim of the fund is to support Israeli and Palestinian civil society in cooperative activities in support of the peace process. The government of Canada is not affiliated with the selection of discussion topics, but supports the overall objective of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, including through IPCRI."

In a Sept. 22 interview with the Independent, Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of immigration and multiculturalism, said he didn't know about IPCRI or its activities but, upon hearing of the content of Baskin's proposal, he said, "I will certainly ask Beverly Oda, minister of international cooperation, who is responsible for CIDA, to look into this."

Robert Ilatov, MK for Israel Beiteinu charged, "Solana's statements are incitement against Israel, and the implementation of this plan would mean war.... But the Palestinians wouldn't support the plan in any event, because it would mean that the refugees couldn't come back to Israel. Their state would have to have final borders, and they would have to give up on their maximalist claims. Both Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert offered them a state [in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as a capital] and they didn't accept it.... They also didn't accept partition in 1947."

Likud Party MK Danny Danon expressed his concern over the IPCRI proposal, saying that it "is both preposterous and absolutely unfounded.... Any official UN recognition of a terrorist state next to Israel will put millions of Jews in danger."

Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

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