During the last century the great powers drew lines in the sands of the Middle East as they divided up what used to be the Ottoman Empire.
Today Syria is being eyed by the powers of today as the buzz-word “failed state” puts it into the same situation that war and mediation have not been able to resolve. The old tribal hatreds magnified due to a large population have reared their ugly heads, resulting in wholesale killings with no end in sight. But Syria is not the only failed state in the region. The newest non-member of the United Nations has already failed before it has started: Palestine.
What are the attributes of a failed state?
Such a state’s common definition is one that has no control over its territory, one in which there is an erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions and one which cannot provide continuing public services such as electricity. Corruption is usually a hallmark of a failed state as is economic decline and dependence upon charitable organizations.
If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck it probably is a duck. This is despite the United Nations recent decision to give credence to what a "Palestinian State” means. It is and will be a failed state. Their votes are merely a reflection of what is in the interests of the majority of members of the UN, nothing more and nothing less.
The United Nations voted for the State of Israel to exist when it suited them in 1947 and it now is voting to give the same land away to others. In disregarding our claim to our ancestral lands based on what was given to us by G-d, the United Nations has moved to set up something that is known as a failed state, past and future.
The failure to control the territory that Hamas and Fatah state loudly and publicly is the first and major marker of a failed state. Particularly after the debacle whereby Israel withdrew from Gaza in the name of peace, it is unlikely that Israel will surrender one inch of territory. The Palestinians may mark maps of the Land of Israel as theirs, they may change Israel’s name to Palestine in their children’s story books and can attempt to brainwash a whole population to believe that it is theirs, but it is not and never will be. This will be even more so after Israeli voters turned right, mainly as a consequence of Hamas’s rockets and suicide bombers.
Failed states have an erosion of legitimate authority. Hamas rules in Gaza by force and by terror. Dissent of any sort is met with death without trial, bodies dragged around the streets, rocket launchers being located in residential areas without the free consent of home-owners whilst civilians are being used as human shields. Dissenters do not have an alternative if they want to live.
Huge sums of money keep Palestinians in business. There is no proper economy for the simple reason that the real economy is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. The GDP of Gaza works like this: The United Nations supplies the money for subsistence together with the good people of the European Union and donors to charities world-wide. There is also incoming war materiel from Iran and other enemies of Israel. Apart from a small amount of fishing and farming there is little other produce, unless weaponry and rocket production is counted. Abbas has thrown up his hands in despair as his fictional Palestine is effectively broke, whilst promises of financial support from his brothers in other lands have not been forthcoming.
Unlike every other country in the world, the UN and its agency set up and dedicated to the Palestinians, UNRWA, make no effort to resettle the people of Gaza, but actively support and encourage the high birth-rate. The day that the UN and charities stop bankrolling the 1.6 million Gazans who have been on the world’s payroll collecting this largesse, they will simply have no income.
The humanitarian refugee problem that used to be part of Egypt will not experience a sharp economic decline when the United Nations stops funding it. It will just stop. The United Nations and charitable organizations have built a monster whilst never planning for tomorrow.
Corruption is endemic, coupled with bribery and the inability to pay civil servants and medical staff proper wages on time, resulting in a deterioration of public services. The hundreds of millions of dollars that Yasser Arafat stashed away is only a small part of the story. The Hamas ruling class live in beautiful homes driving Mercedes and the like in stark contrast to the rest of their people living in sub-standard housing. Things are no different in the few Arab cities of Israel where Fatah is on the take. This is another hallmark of a failed state.
Basic services such as electricity are provided by Israel who amazingly provides repair services whilst Hamas shoots at its service technicians. Specialist medical services such as operations on children requiring heart surgery and Syrian war injuries are also donated by Israel in Israeli hospitals.
Whilst the leaders of this imaginary state work towards a world-wide propaganda effort to legitimize those who call themselves Palestinians it should be remembered that they were originally mostly Arab economic migrants from Egypt, Algeria, Africa and much of the Middle East. Only a minority are refugees from the wars with Israel now living in cities labelled as refugee camps, complete with multi-storey buildings going up to house those who are benefiting from corruption.
During the British rule of this whole area, the Jews were labelled Palestinians and the Arabs – simply Arabs. It was Arafat who began labelling Arabs with the name “Palestinians.”
It would have been a nice idea if it their state was real and if their intentions were peaceful. It may still happen if the 21 surrounding Arab nations take a small piece of their own vacant land to house these unfortunate people somewhere else, or if Egypt would take back their 1.6 million in Gaza. But then, conflict against the Jews is nothing new. We are quite used to it.
The United Nations may have begun its own demise with the decision to give support to a failed state that has no hope of ever existing.