ElJE PODEN: Netanyahu Must Face the Music

No one won at the UN in the Palestinian bid for statehood, but neither was it a tie. It was just another battle, yet another skirmish in the long conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This time the battle was waged by diplomatic means, between two veteran gladiators. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had the advantage in the choice of the battlefield, since the UN is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The weapons were the media, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the advantage, thanks to his natural talents. So who won? Netanyahu didn't win, yet Abbas didn't lose. But this was no tie, either. In the final count, which ultimately only history can tally, it would appear that Abbas took significant strides toward accomplishing his goal of an independent Palestinian state while, in contrast, Netanyahu was fighting a losing battle. This was a battle between two historical narratives. Netanyahu and Abbas presented two different stories about the same conflict over the same piece of land. Naturally, each side chose to ignore or diminish the importance of the other in the history of the land of Israel/Palestine. However, the important difference from previous partition plans is that the current conflict, at least from Abbass's point of view, isn't over the entire Greater Land of Israel/Palestine but over only a part of it - the 1967 borders. Thus, this is no longer a zero-sum game, but rather a conflict that allows for a solution - at least in the eyes of those who want a solution.