Palestine

As one who treasures my friendship with Philip M. Klutznick, and enjoys a continuous exchange of views and information, I'll observe with great interest how the Jewish "establishment" spokespersons will react to his sage advice as to negotiations with the PLO in Israel's need for peace ("Palestine Needs a State, Too," Op-Ed Page, Jan. 10). Will they distribute Phil's opinion piece to their constituency for independent judgment(s), or skewer his remarks? If the treatment Stanley Sheinbaum and the others in the "Stockholm five" received is any example, Klutznick will be the target of abuse and distortion of purpose.

Google has switched the tagline on its Palestinian website, replacing the words “Palestinian territories” with “Palestine” in both English and Arabic. Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said the company consulted "a number of sources and authorities when naming countries" and was following the lead of organizations such as the United Nations, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers and the International Organization for Standardization. "We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products,” Tyler said in a statement emailed to the Los Angeles Times.

Sandy Tolan suggests in "The incredible shrinking Palestine" (Current, May 21) that the U.S. should be wary of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for Israel to withdraw from territory in the West Bank. What does Tolan think would be a better plan -- to wait around and see what better solution Hamas proposes? Tolan states that it "is too early to be sure which direction the Hamas-run Palestinian government will take." How many times does Hamas have to state its intention to destroy Israel before Tolan will be "sure"?

Re "Palestinian politics do matter," Opinion, March 24 Khaled Elgindy, a former advisor to Palestinian leadership, is right when he says, "The United States does not have to like Palestinian politics or endorse its themes or outcomes - any more than it needs to embrace the appointment of pro-settlement and anti-peace figures to Israel's Cabinet - but it does need to acknowledge them. " Israelis are fond of saying, "How can you expect us to negotiate with organizations that want to destroy our state?"

Apparently Pfaff feels he has a license to rewrite Jewish history. "The West Bank never belonged to Israel." "It was Ottoman territory until World War I." Really, now! And from whom did the Ottoman Turks and their predecessors steal it? The West Bank is a name invented by the Jordanians as a modern-day technique emulating the Romans of old--change the name to eliminate the Jewish connection with the land. The so-called West Bank is Judea and Samaria, and all international maps prior to 1948, including Ottoman maps, so stated.

After last week's historic peace accord between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, Palestine was recommended Saturday for provisional membership in the International Olympic Committee. The IOC's 11-member executive board made the recommendation, which will be forwarded to the full membership when it meets in its 101st session here this week.

With limited exposure to the Middle East, Doug Suisman has drawn on his experience designing public spaces and transit systems for Los Angeles to help him with a daunting task: envisioning the new state of Palestine. In years past, the idea of an independent and economically viable Palestine seemed too far-fetched to contemplate.

The Palestinian bid for statehood recognition by the United Nations is almost certain to be rejected if it is taken up by the Security Council. But as early as this week, the governing assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization could grant the Palestinians membership in that organization. If this happens, as is widely expected, the United States would have to resign from UNESCO because of a 20-year-old law forbidding the payment of dues by the U.S. to any U.N. body that accepts Palestine as a member.

There's something shambling and unassuming about "The Flat," a home-movie quality to much of its footage. But it's not just any home that's being examined, and that makes all the difference. Israel's top-grossing documentary of last year as well as the winner of that country's best documentary award, "The Flat" succeeds by being wide-ranging as well as particular. It tells an out-of-the-ordinary personal story and examines broad historical issues of societal memory and selective amnesia, of what is hidden between generations and what is revealed.

Wearing jeans and a long-sleeved polo shirt, elbows on his knees, the 15-year-old looks and talks like any American teenager. His dream is to study computer engineering in California, where many of his relatives live. The young Jordanian's passion, though, is "Palestine" -- a place that no longer exists on most maps, and whose historical boundaries for the last 50 years have been entangled with those of Israel.

Thursday's overwhelming U.N. vote to elevate the status of Palestine at the world body inflicts yet another fracture in the facade of Western solidarity, exposing a divide among European Union and NATO member states over U.S. policy in the Middle East. Israel, Canada, Panama, the Czech Republic and four tiny Pacific island states were the only ones in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly siding with the U.S. in its quixotic vote against the Palestinian Authority's request for nonmember observer state status.

There's something shambling and unassuming about "The Flat," a home-movie quality to much of its footage. But it's not just any home that's being examined, and that makes all the difference. Israel's top-grossing documentary of last year as well as the winner of that country's best documentary award, "The Flat" succeeds by being wide-ranging as well as particular. It tells an out-of-the-ordinary personal story and examines broad historical issues of societal memory and selective amnesia, of what is hidden between generations and what is revealed.

In past decades, Palestinian nationalists thought they had to hijack planes or blow up Israeli civilians in order to attract international attention. Some still do, but moderate leaders are lately discovering that the path to recognition might lie instead through the United Nations. On Monday, they won a key victory when Palestine — a state that doesn't technically exist — was granted membership in the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. That's giving the Obama administration fits and angering pro-Israel members of Congress from both U.S. political parties, but regardless of how one feels about the proper borders of Israel, the Palestinian switch to a diplomatic strategy represents progress.

A decision by the United Nations' cultural organization to admit Palestine as a member state set off a confrontation between the U.S. and the U.N., threatening to strip Washington of influence in several key international agencies while cutting off a major source of contributions to the world body. The Obama administration said it would end funding for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization hours after the group Monday voted 107 to 14 to accept the Palestinian Authority as a full member.

The Palestinian bid for statehood recognition by the United Nations is almost certain to be rejected if it is taken up by the Security Council. But as early as this week, the governing assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization could grant the Palestinians membership in that organization. If this happens, as is widely expected, the United States would have to resign from UNESCO because of a 20-year-old law forbidding the payment of dues by the U.S. to any U.N. body that accepts Palestine as a member.

Rebuffing international pressure to soften their positions and return to the negotiating table, Israelis and Palestinians announced separately Thursday that they were moving forward with an expected diplomatic battle next week at the United Nations. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23, after which he will submit a formal application to admit Palestine into the international body as a state, according to his foreign minister, Riad Malki.

BAGHDAD -- Among the many thousands of Palestinian refugees who made Iraq their home, Ahmed Rahal was one of the most driven. From an impoverished childhood in the West Bank, he rose to the pinnacle of Saddam Hussein's army, becoming the first Palestinian to hold the rank of general. Every step of the way, he had one dream: returning to an independent Palestine. The dream sustained him, but also blinded him. He cast his lot with a ruthless dictator, and did his bidding.

Later this month, the Palestinian Authority intends to go before the United Nations to request recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Although there is strong backing for the bid, the United States, in the name of supporting Israel, has stated its willingness to use its Security Council veto power to keep the Palestinians from joining the U.N. as a full voting member. The U.S. has also refused to join in a more symbolic General Assembly vote that could change the Palestinians' status from a "nonvoting observer entity" to a "nonvoting observer state.

The short drive from Jerusalem to Ramallah begins as you'd expect. The pristine setting of the old-new holy city slowly morphs into a more disordered vista on the outskirts of town — small Arab villages, humbly built of stone, displaying signs of economic decay. The streets are nearly empty. Startlingly soon, the Israeli military checkpoint appears at a break in the expanse of the cement separation barrier. Immediately upon crossing, the most frequently photographed stretch of the barrier comes into sight, a lengthy and colorful mural that includes massive painted images of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a young man and of Marwan Barghouti, who's in an Israeli prison for his role in the second intifada.