- Dec 6, 2009
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Amid the enthusiastic applause in New York City and the celebrations in Ramallah, it was easy to believe if only a for minute that, after decades of obstruction by Israel and the United States, a Palestinian state might finally be pulled out of the United Nations hat. Will the worlds conscience be midwife to a new era ending Israels occupation of the Palestinians?
It seems not.
But there was one significant victory at the UN for Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, even if it was not the one he sought. He will not achieve statehood for his people at the world body, but he has fatally discredited the US as the arbiter of a Middle East peace.
Craven to Israel
In telling the Palestinians there was no shortcut to statehood after they have already waited more than six decades for justice the US president revealed his country as incapable of offering moral leadership on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Blairs bias
However, the Quartet quickly discredited itself too, not least because its officials never strayed far from the Israeli-Washington consensus. Last week senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath spoke for most Palestinians when he accused the Quartets envoy, Tony Blair, of sounding like an Israeli diplomat as he sought to dissuade Abbas from applying for statehood.
And true to form, the Quartet responded to the Palestinians UN application by limply offering Abbas instead more of the same tired talks that have gone nowhere for two decades.
So the Palestinian leadership is stuck. Abbas has run out of institutional addresses for helping him to establish a state alongside Israel. And that means there is a third casualty of the statehood bid the Palestinian Authority. The PA was the fruit of the Oslo process, and will wither without its sustenance.
The (unplanned) victory of the UN statehood bid | JERUSALEMITES
It seems not.
But there was one significant victory at the UN for Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, even if it was not the one he sought. He will not achieve statehood for his people at the world body, but he has fatally discredited the US as the arbiter of a Middle East peace.
Craven to Israel
In telling the Palestinians there was no shortcut to statehood after they have already waited more than six decades for justice the US president revealed his country as incapable of offering moral leadership on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Blairs bias
However, the Quartet quickly discredited itself too, not least because its officials never strayed far from the Israeli-Washington consensus. Last week senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath spoke for most Palestinians when he accused the Quartets envoy, Tony Blair, of sounding like an Israeli diplomat as he sought to dissuade Abbas from applying for statehood.
And true to form, the Quartet responded to the Palestinians UN application by limply offering Abbas instead more of the same tired talks that have gone nowhere for two decades.
So the Palestinian leadership is stuck. Abbas has run out of institutional addresses for helping him to establish a state alongside Israel. And that means there is a third casualty of the statehood bid the Palestinian Authority. The PA was the fruit of the Oslo process, and will wither without its sustenance.
The (unplanned) victory of the UN statehood bid | JERUSALEMITES