Has The Global Community Realized That Recognizing A Palestinian State Is More Trouble Than It's Worth?

Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence has produced a range of reactions among Israeli and Palestinian observers that reveal their anxieties about their respective situations.
Electronic Intifada

But in reality, it is more than just Israelis and Palestinians.

For the longest time there has been special treatment for Palestinian Arabs as opposed to the rest of the world--for example, they got their own UN group, UNRWA to resettle Arab refugees.

Similarly, there has been a unique intensity among world nations for the establishment of a state for a people that have never had one, and who only recently have identified themselves as a people.

So when Kosovo separated from Serbia and declared independence, it seemed like the ideal model for the Arabs to create a second Palestinian state.


The parallel between Kosovo and a Palestinian state seemed complete:

European Union Israel mission head Andrew Stanley told journalists in Tel Aviv Monday that the EU will use Kosovo as a model in dealing with a unilaterally declared Palestinian state, Trend News reports.

"Yet we do not have a clear position on the independence of Palestine, but the EU has the experience of Kosovo, which we plan to introduce in this case," Stanley said.

...Kosovo serves the EU as a helpful model because the autonomous Serbian province declared its independence in February 2008. Serbian officials do not recognize Kosovo's independence, but many countries in the EU as well as the United States supported the declaration. In February 2009, 54 countries recognized Kosovo as a sovereign state.

All that remained to complete the picture was for Abbas to go before the UN in September so that a Palestinian state can get recognition and become a member of the UN.

And here is where things get sticky--for the first time, it may be that the other nations may not really be so ready to give special treatment to the Palestinian Arabs: not because of any sudden sympathy for Israel, but rather out of 'enlightened' self-interest.

In a JINSA report that came out just today, the authors of the report note that Palestinian UN Vote Fraught with Global Implications, to the extent that

Currently, the United States is blocking recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which seceded with Russian military assistance from Georgia. Russia is blocking recognition of Kosovo.

So why are the US and Russia blocking recognition of these new states?

Apparently the global community woke up:

[I]t suddenly became clear that bending the particular rule that requires the Security Council to send the motion for any country's independence to the General Assembly might work against them as they face secessionist movements of their own. And they do.

There are 37 recognized and recognizable secessionist movements in Africa. There are 65 in Asia, including 13 in Burma, five in China (Uighurs, Tibetans and Mongolians among them). Russia straddles continents and faces five secessionist movements in Asian Russia and 13 more in European Russia, including Chechens. The rest of Europe has more than 50, including 18 in Italy and nine in Spain. France has four irredentist movements, four secessionist movements, five autonomist movements and several movements to change the borders of Departments. There is one each in Poland, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland. Parties in Greenland want to secede from Denmark and in Puerto Rico they want to secede from the United States - which also has American Indian, Southern and Texan movements to secede, as well as one in Manhattan and one in New York State. The Miskito Indians want to secede from Nicaragua and Chiapas from Mexico. French and British colonies in the Caribbean and Oceana have separatist movements.

The JINSA report concludes:

Maybe countries are unwilling to bet their own borders on the United States providing the necessary veto on Israel's behalf in the Security Council.

I would imagine the concern is not so much whether the US will provide a veto on Israel's behalf--the bigger question is whether the US would be willing to extend the same 'courtesy' to all these other countries facing secessionist groups demanding independence.

There is a certain irony in that a number of those countries that were so "sympathetic" to Arab aspirations, now have their own problems as they must deal with groups that are becoming louder in their demand for recognition and independence.

As the saying goes: if at first you don't secede, try, try again.

Technorati Tag: Palestine and Kosovo.