Backing The Wrong Horse
After waiting for years for something to change, the Palestinian Authority has decided to apply to the UN for statehood. That is, after all, how Israel came into being.
The BBC decided to commission a poll on the issue
A global BBC poll suggests more people support UN recognition of Palestine as an independent state than oppose it.
Across the 19 countries surveyed, 49% backed the proposal while 21% said their government should oppose it.
The Palestinians say they will ask for full membership at the UN this week but the US says it will veto the move.
International Middle East envoy Tony Blair told the BBC he wants to make sure the move does not undermine chances of a return to peace talks.
The Palestinians are seeking international recognition of their state based on 1967 borders – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Israel and the US say a Palestinian state can only be achieved through direct negotiation.
They downplayed the results, as 49% is more than twice 21%.
Mr. Blair still thinks there will be talks, when Israel refuses to hold them, coming up with new excuses as it steals ever more land in the West Bank.
CNN looks at the US problem: U.S. already planning for post-U.N. fallout
Last year during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Barack Obama said he hoped peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians could be concluded within a year so that a Palestinian state could be seated at the next year’s General Assembly.
Now, his administration is doing everything it can to prevent that from happening.
Even as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday promised to seek full statehood for the Palestinians before the U.N. Security Council, the Obama administration – along with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Quartet envoy Tony Blair – is urging Abbas to agree on a road ahead that won’t lead to the floor of the U.N.
It is simple, the current government of Israel has no intention of negotiating anything with anybody. Instead of vetoing resolutions concerning Israel, the US should abstain, because Israel as no intention of doing anything except isolating itself from the rest of the world. It has lost its neutral relations with Egypt, and has so enraged Turkey, that they are cutting their ties.
Supporting Israel is a luxury the US cannot afford.
4 comments
Whatever self-destructive things the Israelis want to do, the right wing Christanists will support. So politically in the U.S., Israel is in the catbird seat. Of course, if they were smart, the Israelis would be wondering why the Christianists so heartily support people (Jews) who the Christianists believe are all going to Hell… hint: it ain’t out of love for Israelis. Rather, it’s to help the Jews along with triggering the Apocalypse, at which point the Jews all perish in war and go to Hell. You’d think the Israelis could figure out that the Christianists ain’t exactly got their best interests in mind, but most of the smart people have been fleeing Israel for the past twenty years, having seen the writing on the walls. We probably have more Israeli computer scientists here in the Silicon Valley than exist in Tel Aviv right now… the only folks who end up staying there are the folks who are either too stupid to get out, or too idealistic to realize just how hopeless the long-term strategic situation is given the current policies of the Israeli state.
– Badtux the Pragmatic Penguin
The Likud seem hell-bent on making the country into an international pariah. They aren’t self-supporting, so they are on the road to suicide.
Supporting Israel is a luxury the US cannot afford.
oh, i dunno… they took out that zomgwtfbbq!!1!!! they’re building a nuke plant!!1!!!11! in syria for us….
Oh, yes, nothing like identifying something as a threat and then blowing it up before anyone can investigate to see if it is a threat.
And let’s not forget all of the wonderful help they were in identifying Saddam’ WMD’s, so Iraq could be attacked…