Once a focus of the world’s concern, at this year’s United Nation’s general assembly opening session the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was, at best, an afterthought. Neither US president Barack Obama nor Russian president Vladimir Putin even mentioned the issue in their speeches. Worse still was how the question of Palestine was mangled and abused in speeches delivered by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Netanyahu, forever the showman, put on a bizarre performance in which he touched only briefly on the conflict in his backyard. Eighty per cent of his prepared remarks were devoted to denouncing and demeaning the UN for its support of the Iran deal, including an eerie 45 seconds in which he silently stared at the assembly scolding them for their silence in the face of Iran’s threats against Israel. He then launched into an embarrassingly boastful discourse in which he claimed that Israel was the “innovation nation” that had invented or “perfected” pretty much everything from smartphones to the cherry tomato.
Only at the end of his speech did Mr Netanyahu turn to the Palestinian issue by disingenuously announcing that he was “prepared to immediately resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever”. Two sentences later, however, Mr Netanyahu imposed his first two conditions by stating that his commitment to a two-state solution meant “a demilitarised Palestinian state [that] recognises the Jewish state”.
Like Mr Netanyahu, PA president Abbas remarks were predictable. Mr Abbas’s speech was a long, sad litany of woes culminating in empty threats. He reiterated the Palestinian demand for their just rights and then listed all of the ways that Israel has impeded the realisation of those rights.
Mr Abbas had promised a bombshell announcement, but it was delivered in such tortured language that observers listening carefully to the PA president’s words were left wondering what he was really saying: “We declare that as long as Israel refuses to commit to the agreement signed with us ... we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements ... while Israel continuously violates them.”
Was he, in fact, dissolving the Palestinian Authority and ending security cooperation with Israel? Was he endorsing a nationwide movement of non-violent resistance demanding an end to the decades-long occupation? Or was he making just another hollow threat?
The US response was also tragically predictable, lamely calling on all parties to take no steps that would endanger an eventual two-state solution – as if oblivious to the realities that are making that very outcome impossible: 570,000 Israeli settlers living across the Green Line, an obscene wall snaking in and out of the West Bank that chews up almost 10 per cent of the Palestinian territory, provocative Jewish-only housing projects being established in East Jerusalem and Hebron in a continuing effort to change the character of both cities, and now a dangerous effort to change the status quo at Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Arrogant and dishonest bullying from the Israeli side, weak and visionless whining from the Palestinians, and timidity and neglect from the US – that was how the Israeli-Palestinian issue played out at the UN. And it was how Oslo and its peace process were unceremoniously buried.
This was not the way it was supposed to be. I was on the White House lawn together with hundreds of other Arab Americans and American Jews as we watched PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993.
The accords were flawed, to be sure. The parties had gone as far as they could in an effort to find agreement, but in doing so they left some terms vague and subject to divergent interpretations. Further progress, therefore, would require a firm balancing hand. Nevertheless, what was clear was that Israel and the PLO had recognised each other’s national rights and agreed to negotiate an end to their decades-old conflict. It was understood that the way forward would not be easy. But there was optimism that there was, at last, a beginning.
The intervening years were not kind to the Oslo process. The US failed to recognise that the Israelis and Palestinians would need external support and pressure to complete the effort. Instead of a balanced approach, Israel got the support and Palestinians got the pressure.
Not only was little progress made in the critical first few years, but Israeli settlements increased, Palestinians became poorer, more unemployed and less free to move about. In the end, they lost confidence in the peace process. Efforts to sabotage Oslo made by the Israeli right-wing and the Newt Gingrich-led Congress were matched by a series of hideous terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, who also sought to destroy Oslo.
After Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and Hamas stepped up its campaign of terror, Israelis elected Benjamin Netanyahu, who campaigned on a platform of ending the Oslo Accords. By placing new hurdles in the way of the process while dramatically expanding settlement construction, Mr Netanyahu did his best to deliver on his promise.
During all this time, pathologies played out on all sides. Israeli politics continued to become more hardline and aggressive, seeking to establish their control. Palestinians, divided and lacking visionary leadership, floundered.
Oslo has been dying for years. What happened this week at the UN was the final burial rite. Unless there is a dramatic challenge to the status quo, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue to deteriorate with no good end in sight.
James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute
On Twitter: @aaiusa
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
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Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Brief scores:
Toss: Pakhtunkhwa Zalmi, chose to field
Environment Agency: 193-3 (20 ov)
Ikhlaq 76 not out, Khaliya 58, Ahsan 55
Pakhtunkhwa Zalmi: 194-2 (18.3 ov)
Afridi 95 not out, Sajid 55, Rizwan 36 not out
Result: Pakhtunkhwa won by 8 wickets
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The National photo project
Chris Whiteoak, a photographer at The National, spent months taking some of Jacqui Allan's props around the UAE, positioning them perfectly in front of some of the country's most recognisable landmarks. He placed a pirate on Kite Beach, in front of the Burj Al Arab, the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland at the Burj Khalifa, and brought one of Allan's snails (Freddie, which represents her grandfather) to the Dubai Frame. In Abu Dhabi, a dinosaur went to Al Ain's Jebel Hafeet. And a flamingo was taken all the way to the Hatta Mountains. This special project suitably brings to life the quirky nature of Allan's prop shop (and Allan herself!).
If you go
The flights
The closest international airport for those travelling from the UAE is Denver, Colorado. British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from the UAE via London from Dh3,700 return, including taxes. From there, transfers can be arranged to the ranch or it’s a seven-hour drive. Alternatively, take an internal flight to the counties of Cody, Casper, or Billings
The stay
Red Reflet offers a series of packages, with prices varying depending on season. All meals and activities are included, with prices starting from US$2,218 (Dh7,150) per person for a minimum stay of three nights, including taxes. For more information, visit red-reflet-ranch.net.
More about Middle East geopolitics
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Afghanistan Premier League - at a glance
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Fixtures:
Tue, Oct 16, 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Kabul Zwanan; Wed, Oct 17, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Nangarhar Leopards; 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Paktia Panthers; Thu, Oct 18, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Kandahar Knights; 8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Paktia Panthers; Fri, Oct 19, 8pm: First semi-final; Sat, Oct 20, 8pm: Second semi-final; Sun, Oct 21, 8pm: final
Table:
1. Balkh Legends 6 5 1 10
2. Paktia Panthers 6 4 2 8
3. Kabul Zwanan 6 3 3 6
4. Nagarhar Leopards 7 2 5 4
5. Kandahar Knights 5 1 4 2
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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