Is a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood a step forward or backward for the Israel-Palestine conflict?

It’s the counsel of despair. 

A General Assembly vote, which the PA will win, won’t create a state; a Security Council vote will, but that the PA will lose.

So why are they going for it? Because they face rising popular pressure for change, as Ramallah watches the Arab Spring. Because neither the PA nor their population nor the Europeans nor frankly the Obama Administration has the slightest confidence that Netanyahu intends real negotiations. Because a political victory at the General Assembly would feel good. (Crisis Group argues it would also give the PA a stronger card at the ICC – but Israel has several important protections against this tactic.)  

The wise move for the PA is to go for the GA vote, and skip the Security Council. Middle East diplomacy has been President Obama’s weakest game – but pissing off the President is still bad politics in the Middle East. 

Email

Share

I believe it would be a step forward since it would convey to Israel,the worlds’ dismay at its aggressive policy on settlements and Palestinian statehood. Nothing more positive for world affairs than the resolution of this issue could happen.

Email

Share

It’s a step forward. I have yet to hear even a half-persuasive argument against a Palestinian state by Israel or the U.S. (or Canada). As if the Palestinians should persist with the “peace process” after 18 years of fruitless “negotiations” since Oslo and 44 years of occupation since 1967. 

Email

Share

Philip Stephens writes in the Financial Times that Palestinian statehood “should be the pro-Israel position” because real peace in this 63-year-old conflict demands a Palestinian state. The international community’s promise of a two-state solution is stymied by the Netanyahu-Lieberman coalition’s refusal of sincere negotiations with the Palestinians and aggressive expansion of illegal settlements in what would be the Palestinian state. Tzipi Livni, opposition leader, rightly blames Netanyahu himself for the UN vote. Though just a political stunt with little practical consequence, it gets magnified by media into a narrative of political winners and losers.

Regrettably, a perceived loser is Obama, obliged by US Congress politics to veto full statehood, undoing efforts by the US to connect to young Arabs. But Israel loses more, government intransigence having deepened the country’s isolation. One hopes Israeli voters, already vexed by the country’s economics, will soon throw this unpleasant coalition government out and give Israelis and Palestinians the chance at real peace they have so long deserved.

Email

Share