This had to happen sooner or later. Weary of the endless cat-and-mouse games of Israel and the United States, the Palestinians have turned to Europe for help. They have asked European nations to recognize an independent Palestinian state, declaring the truce lines before the 1967 war as the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state.

The move is a bold step in efforts to seek statehood outside the framework of a peace deal with Israel. This is the first clear sign that the Palestinians have totally given up on a negotiated settlement with Israel and its patron saint, America, to deliver it. This is a huge snub to President Barack Obama, who has ostensibly tried and spectacularly failed to push the Israelis toward peace. The U.S. leader couldn’t even get the Israelis to freeze the Jewish settlements for three months. So much for The Audacity of Hope! And instead of disciplining Israel for pouring scorn over its closest ally and protector, Congress has passed an AIPAC-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinians for considering a unilateral declaration of statehood.
So this is just as well that the Palestinians have finally decided to stop running after the mirage that the peace process with Israel has become. More important, they have stopped deluding themselves that the U.S. alone could deliver peace and persuade Israel to give up the Palestinian land that it has been squatting on for nearly half a century.
The Palestinian call has coincided with a joint appeal by former European leaders and top diplomats demanding a European peace plan based on the establishment of an independent Palestine on the “100 percent of the territory (Israel) occupied in 1967, including its capital in East Jerusalem.” The letter has been signed, among others, by former Irish President Mary Robinson, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, former EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, and Chris Patten, the prominent Conservative and a former British member of the European Commission.
The diversity of the 26 signatories representing the closest of America’s Atlantic allies underscores the extent of European frustration with the reigning superpower and its inability, or unwillingness, to push the peace process forward. All the Arab offers and concessions, including the groundbreaking Arab peace plan put forward by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, have failed to break the blind wall of Israeli obstinacy. Clearly, nothing can persuade Israel to get serious about peace.
As a result, it’s not just the Palestinians who have suffered for over six decades. The Palestinian dispossession and persecution have radicalized generations of Arabs and Muslims around the world, putting Islam and the West on a dangerous and avoidable collision course. Goes without saying the U.S. is responsible for this hopeless state of affairs as much as Israel is. This is why it's past high time the world community, especially Europe that enjoys historical ties to the Middle East, not to mention its own role in creating this problem in the first problem, got involved in the peace process. This wouldn’t be possible without Arabs adopting a proactive approach to involve Europe and rest of the world in the peace process. The total U.S. monopoly of the peace process hasn’t got U.S. anywhere. It’s time for European nations — and Arabs – to emerge from America’s shadow and start exploring an alternative plan to end the Palestinian misery. God knows they have suffered long enough!