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On September 23, one week from tomorrow, the Palestinian Authority will lead an effort to be recognized as an independent state at the United Nations. With serious peace talks stalled for years and with the Palestinians having little alternatives or leverage to force a return to negotiations, they decided that going to the UN was the best course of action. And while the US can veto the effort at the Security Council, a General Assembly petition for “observer status” is more likely to succeed.
The announcement that the Palestinians will go to the Security Council first means that the US will have to bear international condemnation if they elect to veto, which they have vowed to do.
Foreign Minister Riad al-Malk said Thursday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will present the bid for statehood to the Security Council and will deliver a speech to the General Assembly in New York on Sept. 23, The Associated Press reported.
The announcement dashes hopes by the White House that the Palestinians might bypass the request for statehood recognition at the Security Council and turn instead to the full General Assembly for an upgrade in their status similar to the Vatican, something which falls short of statehood and full U.N. membership.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to broker new talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but the effort failed. And the Palestinians will not allow the US to sidestep the embarrassment of having to veto. It’s possible that Clinton was merely laying the groundwork for future negotiations after the UN affair, but I don’t see how that will be successful either.
Meanwhile, while the US seeks support from other Security Council nations against the measure so it’s not isolated on the veto, the highest-ranking former or current diplomatic official that I can recall, former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, came out in favor of the Palestinian statehood bid. This was Tony Blair’s Foreign Secretary.
Straw, who was foreign secretary from 2001 to 2006 in Tony Blair’s government, has written to all 650 members of parliament arguing the case for Palestinian statehood and urging colleagues to stand up and be counted.
The Palestinians are expected to formally submit an application for full membership of the UN – in effect recognition of an independent state – when the world body meets in New York next week. The US has confirmed that it would veto such a bid at the security council.
The UK government is taking a wait and see approach to the question; whether or not the UK backs the Palestinian plan of action will depend on the specific wording of any resolution they put forward.
All the neocons who want to put a stop to this have is a recycled quote from PLO Ambassador Maen Areikat about a Palestine free of Jews, something he already walked back.
This is becoming a major diplomatic incident, and the Palestinians are not giving the US the easy way out.
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Palestine, technically, is not seeking statehood. It considers itself a state and is seeking membership in the United Nations.
UN Charter: “The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.”
The State of Palestine was proclaimed on 15 November 1988 in Algiers at an extraordinary session in exile of the Palestine National Council. Legal justification for this act was based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, which provided for the termination and partition of the British Mandate into two states.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: “This month, however, as we commemorate another year of our expulsion — which we call the nakba, or catastrophe — the Palestinian people have cause for hope: this September, at the United Nations General Assembly, we will request international recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 border and that our state be admitted as a full member of the United Nations.”
Over 120 nations recognize Palestine as a state. The following countries have consulates in Palestine:
Australia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, India, Kordan, Netherlands, Poland, Qatar and South Africa.
These countries have embassies in Palestine:
Cyprus and Morocco.
The time has come.
Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine
Nov 29, 1947 (excerpts)
Fascinating how this turn of the international kaleidoscope brings Turkey into clearer view.
Turkey’s PM rallies Arab world in Cairo with call for UN to recognise Palestine
Analysts believe Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Egypt visit is designed to strengthen Turkey’s influence in the region and isolate Israel
More.
I enjoy seeing the US bullies squirm.
Basically, this is crux of the UN bid…
UN nod to Palestinian state not enough: Experts
Even if the UN agreed to accept a Palestinian state as its 194th member, it would not have any practical application on the ground in terms of ending the occupation, it said.
But it could allow the Palestinians to seek redress for Israeli actions at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, with potentially dramatic implications for its settlements enterprise in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the ACRI document added.
One of the world court’s founding articles defines the transfer of population to an occupied territory as a war crime, the paper said.
“This means that the issue of settlements would become an issue of an international criminal tribunal, which would open the door to the prosecution of Israelis responsible for establishing or expanding settlements,” it explained.
That is exactly what Bibi and his BFF Adelson are so scared about…!
For clarification to readers with no history background the mandatory power was Britain.
What happened in NY-9 has made Obama desperate about losing the Jewish vote. So as part of Obama’s “pivot to Jews” expect him to turn the Palestinian UN bid into some very public AIPAC whoring.
Me too. Hillary & Susan Rice must be crapping in their adult diapers.
But that has to go thru the Sec council, no? And U.S. will veto it.
Dday… Some disturbing news out of Iraq…
UN told the US and Iraq already signed an agreement?
The big story in Iraqi newspapers today is on the US withdrawal or ‘withdrawal.’ Supposedly all US forces would leave Iraq at the end of December 2011. Al Rafidayn is one of the papers reporting that a meeting at the United Nations Mission in Baghdad a few days prior found the UN being informed by Iraqis and the US (James Jeffrey, US Ambassador to Iraq, is said to have represented the American side) that the US would pull soldiers due to leave Iraq because their tour of duty was up but that was it and it was a “formality” because, in fact, the US and Iraq had entered an agreement allowing US forces to remain in Iraq. This alleged agreement is a temporary one that would allow the US and Iraq more time to negotiate the details of a US presence beyond 2011. It would last six months. Dar Addustour also reports on this alleged temporary agreement that’s been made.
ICC actions are independent of the UNSC, eCAHN…! Even if the full fledged member status is/will be shot down, ‘Observer Member’ status does get their foot in the door at The Hague…! One extraneous point tho, Israel(nor the US) is not a signatory to the ICC, so it’s findings won’t affect them in Israel, however, they could be enforced if they travel to other countries…!
Hmm the US is right now about to sell the taxpayer to help bail out the european bankers. Me thinks in return a euro country with the power of veto will step up to block this. Just a thought, I guess we will see.
Thanks. I didn’t understand that correctly. I have noticed that none of the W muckety mucks have been doing much intl travel…
NY-9 will neither make nor break Obama’s bid for re-election. If he’s that close to the margin, he’s already lost.
*heh* Run, Rummy, run…! ;-)
About bloody FUCKING TIME!!!
Of course this does open the door to some very unpleasant actions by Israel and the US.
Dawg, I really hope I’m wrong.
I read that today Abbas announced he’s going for full member status, which risks a US veto. But their fallback position is to receive status as a non-voting observer at the full assembly, which they may well be able to do. And the US can’t veto that. But as such they will still be able to seek redress at the International Criminal Court and have access to other member benefits.
Exactly my point @10…! ;-)
They can still seek non-member observer status in the full assembly, which gives the access to the ICC. And the US can’t veto that.
I hadn’t read your comment @ 10. :)
Should have known you’d be right on top of it.
The I/P is my passion…! ;-)
I’m hoping they go for full member status just to give U.S. veto more visibility. But don’t the wikileaks docs show what a U.S. sellout Abbas is? If I’ve got that right, he’ll back down on any U.N. action whatsoever.
From today’s Jpost…
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said America is not involved in trying to tone down a draft UN resolution on Palestinian statehood.
“We’re not negotiating any text, we’re not engaged in efforts to water down a text,” Rice said Thursday in a briefing with Jewish journalists. “We’re making the case that this is not a productive course.”
Rice dismissed as false rumors that a draft text even exists, but she said the Europeans were talking with the Palestinians about the substance of a resolution.
“There is no Palestinian text yet,” she said. “Nobody in New York has seen one.”
You’re thinking about the ‘Palestine Papers’ published by Al Jazeera, not wikileaks… Tho there are some seriously incriminating cables too…!
So is Abbas a sellout or not? Will he go for anything, or cave altogether?
I personally think he’ll cave in to the Israeli/US pressure…! I hope not, but, that’s my gut feeling…! 8-(
NYTimes — “Veto a State, Lose an Ally” (Saudi Arabia)
After the slander of Obama’s weakness on Israel in the NY-9 race, now might be a good time for the President have the US vote Yes on the General Assembly resolution with the statement that Israel’s behavior will determine whether the US casts another Yes vote in the Security Council.
Either Palestine and Gaza is a sovereign state with which Israel has hostilities, or Israel is an occupying state in violation of the Geneva Conventions. That’s the framing on Israel’s vote. A No vote is an admission that Israel is an illegitimate occupying power. At which point other nations can challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Those documents show that Abbas is a sellout, but even more importantly imho, they showed that the Israelis would not even accept his sellout proposals. (Sounds a bit like another president I could name.)
Hopefully, Abbas has learned that there is nothing more he can do with Israel directly.
It’s been 95 years since the Zionists extended the Great War for their bloody Balfour Declaration, and payback time has finally come. May Israel receive thrice comeuppance.
“May Israel receive thrice comeuppance.”
Time to fire up the ovens again?
It is never time to fire up the ovens.
We may only be able to hope that the kids we raised who are now young adults do better than we have.
The ovens should remain cold, a museum piece, a relic from the past. I too have a lot of hopes for the younger generations. And I hope they will question incendiary rhetoric when they hear it. Hence my question to GregDiablo.
This shows how spoiled they are. The Jews are like a bunch of out of control children.
No, they just need a good spanking.
But you can’t blame people for being ticked off, the Israelis are such pigs. And, I’m sorry to say, many of their Jewish supporters here in the good old U.S. of A. are worse than a lot of Israelis in “Israel” proper.
Your response is a red herring. I don’t mind anyone being “ticked off” at anything but that’s a far cry from what @31 said.