Hot springs, heavy drinkers, failed banks — and Palestine

Reykjavik, Iceland's capital. A lovely setting for a very bad idea

Reykjavik, Iceland's capital. A lovely setting for a very bad idea

You may have noticed a news item in your local paper today about the parliament of Iceland passing a resolution recognizing the state of ‘Palestine’ according to pre-1967 lines.

Apart from the fact that Iceland is the first European country to do this impossible feat — that is, recognize a ‘country’ with borders that  make a hostile claim on the territory of another country, one with no economy except  the international dole, no single government (despite claims, Hamas and the PLO are not ‘unified’), and whose essence is to deny self-determination to another nation — there is another interesting fact about it.

You will not read this interesting fact in your paper, because it won’t mention it. It took Evelyn Gordon, writing in the so-called ‘neo-con’ Commentary magazine to notice it. Let me quote the resolution in full, which your newspaper or radio/TV newscaster won’t do:

“Alþingi [the Icelandic parliament] resolves to entrust the government to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state within the pre-1967 Six Day War borders.

Also, Alþingi urges Israelis and Palestinians to reconcile through the means of peace agreements on the basis of international law and resolutions of the United Nations, including the mutual recognition of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine.

Alþingi reaffirms that the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and also recalls the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes in accordance with resolutions reaffirmed by the United Nations.

Alþingi demands that the conflicting parties in the Arab-Israeli Conflict cease warfare and acts of violence forthwith and respect human rights and humanitarian law.” [my emphasis]

So there you are. The Icelandic parliament believes that 5 million descendents of the 600,000 or so original Arab refugees have the ‘right’ to overrun the state of Israel, wiping out the right of self-determination of the Jews that live there (and probably their lives as well).

Apparently it was not considered relevant that in the history of international law there has never been a ‘right of return’ for refugees of any kind, not to mention their descendents!

The peace-loving legislators of Iceland, a country of hot springs, heavy drinkers and failed banks, probably didn’t stop to think about the violent aspects of the ‘Palestinian people’ or their single-minded dedication to their ’cause’, and how the entry of 5 million of them into a majority Jewish state would probably give rise to a vicious civil war.

Even if it could be done peacefully (it can’t), as Gordon points out the result would be not one new Arab-majority state, but two, one on either side of the line. This is what the Palestinians mean by a “two-state solution!”

Iceland’s Parliament: stupid or evil? You decide.

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2 Responses to “Hot springs, heavy drinkers, failed banks — and Palestine”

  1. Robman says:

    Ahhh, the same old story. Failed economy…BLAME THE JEWS. Oops, that’s not politically correct. Modern version: BASH ISRAEL.

    Ever notice how the most anti-Israel countries tend to be the ones with the worst economies?

    And then consider Canada: About the most stable and strong economy in the world today…and also Israel’s best friend on the world stage.

    I believe it was Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who once wrote: “Anti-Semitism is the final refuge for those who feel that they have been cheated by life.” Or something to that effect.

    What we see in Iceland is the collective, national-level version of this phenomenon.

  2. juvanya says:

    And here I liked Iceland…