Fifty years of the Two-State Solution Blackmail
Fifty years of the Two-State Solution Blackmail

Speaking after the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Brussels, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini made an astonishing declaration of ignorance. Again.

“We always say that the Two State Solution is the only realistic one,” she said. “I have not heard by anyone or from anyone, not only in the last weeks but in the last decades any other idea than two States to preserve Israeli security. The Palestinians need to have their own country under their own authority.”

One reinforced with Hamas weaponized by Iran and aimed at the destruction of Israel? Or one with an elected, democratic, peaceful government?

Urging the EU to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Mr Netanyahu said: “While I respect Europe, I am not prepared to accept a double standard from it.” 

It is a pity the Israeli Prime Minister does not make more frequent visits to point out blatant hypocrisy. The previous visit by an Israeli prime minister was 22 years ago. So much for the allegedly powerful Israeli lobby! 

Under the British Mandate, “Palestinian” was the term for JEW! Hence we could also add theft of nationality (by the Soviet KGB Disinformation service) to hypocrisy. “Palestinians” are not mentioned in the famous 1967 UN Resolution 242. Why? Because they did not exist. The real Palestinians had changed their name to Israelis.

Egypt’s dictator Nasser and the Soviet communists had invented the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 to arabize and communize the entire territory of the Palestinian Mandate. That included the “kingdom” across the Jordan!

For a viable solution perhaps High Representative Mogherini should look further back. Let’s say before she was born in 1973. Perhaps she should also look at home, at the European Community system itself, the Schuman Plan principle. That brought real change and peace to former Nazis, communists and anti-Semites!

Europe also proved the stupidity of the “Two State Solution”. Its experience extends not just over the last decades but over a period of more than two thousand years!

The Two State Solution coincides with the first major attempt to blackmail Western Europe’s Foreign Policy. It dates from the 1967 Six Day war. 
This year is the fiftieth birthday. Oil Blackmail still does not work! 

It should be recalled that in 1967, there was little that could be called European Foreign Policy. Foreign policy was a national affair. The European Communities provided the only legitimate frame.  They could make international agreements only in very specific sectors. The European Coal and Steel Community was founded when coal was the main fuel in Europe. Euratom was created to exploit the oil-free energy of the nuclear industry and provide for nuclear non-proliferation. The European Economic Community with its Customs Union brought the dimension of international trade agreements. Only these three Communities could make legal, European law.

The founding father of European unity, Robert Schuman (initiator of the European Communities, the Council of Europe, NATO) was sensitive to real Arab interests. Algeria was then an integral part of France. France had colonies and protectorates along the Mediterranean and in Africa. But he was pro-Israel. He was Prime Minister in the crucial period of November 1947 to July 1948, and Foreign Minister from 1948 to 1953. He instructed France to cast its United Nations vote in favor of Israel.

Warnings were made in the 1950s about Europe’s increasing reliance on oil. The 1956 Suez crisis showed how fragile links to the Middle East oil were. However despite attempts of the good Europeans to face up to potential Islamist energy blackmail by combining the defense of the three Communities, the policy was blocked by one factor. General de Gaulle took power in 1957. He changed the foreign policy of France from a pro-Israel to a pro-Arab one because of oil.

This was myopic.

In the 1967 oil crisis France got off the hook. But the Arab oil exporters wanted to use the Oil Weapon to change the foreign policy of the other major States. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, and Algeria stopped oil shipments to the United States, West Germany and the United Kingdom (not yet a member of the Communities).  Why? Because those countries were directly or indirectly helping Israel and did not want to maintain pre-1967 cease-fire lines as borders. And they weren’t friendly to Islamic indoctrination.

That is the real birth of oil blackmail aimed at dictating to the world an Islamic anti-Israel foreign policy. Although the British came up with a two State solution first, it was as a temporary political measure. 

In 1923 the British lobbed the biggest chunk of the Palestine Mandate territory east of the Jordan and ‘gave’ it to the Hashemite Abdullah, expelled from Arabia and dismissed from Iraq. Bad move! That move was without full legal approval of the League of Nations. No other European State recognized the Trans-Jordan. Nor did Saudi Arabia under the Wahabis. Nor any other country who fancied getting some oil. Only Pakistan.

In 1937 the British suggested a two State solution in the Peel White Paper to further reduce Israel. It had no traction.

In 1973 the Arab Oil Exporting Countries (OAPEC) again deployed the Oil Weapon to change global politics. It first tried a total oil embargo for some States, cuts of 5 percent per month for others. Then it quadrupled the price, shutting down the European economy. 

It also imposed poverty and seemingly endless wars on developing countries. Then it quadrupled the prices again. So much for Saudi sympathy for fellow Arabs, and even less for Europeans.

If the EU foreign policy chief cannot imagine any other policy than Saudi Arabia’s Two State Solution, it is because she and many of her officials are now the defenders of Saudi oil blackmail policy that rules in Europe and the United Nations. They drank it in with their mother’s milk.

For decades after WW2, the price of oil was under two dollars a barrel. It gave oil exporters fat profits, yachts and a playboy lifestyle. Two dollars then is equivalent to under 10 dollars today. Massive oilfields have since been discovered. 

Under the Oil Cartel OPEC, the price rose to near 150 dollars a barrel. At that point, the oil blackmail graft amounted to about ten percent of global GDP. Some blackmail! Saudi Aramco is the richest company in the world bar none.  

Europe, Put an end to hypocrisy!

Resisting Blackmail would be useful too!


David Heilbron, Priceeur Democracy Schuman Project, Editor of the Schuman Project on the origin, purpose and future of Europe's new democracy, initiated by Robert Schuman. I am author of several works on Schuman and European history. Latest books: Don't Brexit, Fix it! and Brexit and Britain's Vision for Europe.