A year after calling at the UN for a Palestinian state, US President Barack Obama could be about to order a US veto to thwart an aspiration he has spent substantial political capital to bring about.
Palestinians, frustrated that peace talks with Israel and their path to statehood is frozen, are considering an application for recognition as a full member state at the UN Security Council next week.
Obama, under heavy domestic political pressure, has warned a Palestinian declaration of statehood would be a “distraction” and would not change facts on the ground, end conflict with Israel or lead to a genuine state.
The US appears acutely aware of the consequences of a veto and has mounted a last-ditch drive to head off the Palestinian move.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that the initiative was aiming to forge a “sustainable platform for negotiations.” Another option would be to divert a statehood bid away from the Security Council.
If the Palestinians chose instead to seek to upgrade their status to that of a non-member observer state in the UN General Assembly, Washington could vote against the move while avoiding a Security Council veto. Though some European states are reportedly in favor, Washington and Israel still oppose even that compromise.
Despite Israeli warnings of a grave response and the prospect of the US Congress pulling hundreds of millions of US dollars in aid, it might be that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is too politically invested to back down.
White House officials declined to discuss the possible impact of a veto on US prestige.
However, such a step would be embarrassing for Obama after he made the Palestinian cause and repairing the US breach with Islam key goals of his presidency.
In 2009, he traveled to Cairo to address the Muslim world and declared: “America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.”
A year ago, Obama raised the stakes, calling at the UN for Arab states, Israel and Palestine to draw on the traditions of tolerance shared by Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
“When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations — an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel,” Obama said, laying a big political bet.
Such hopes foundered on Israel’s refusal to extend a settlement moratorium, resulting Palestinian fury and US bad blood with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister, now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that a veto could damage US credibility as it pushes for reform in a region rocked by the Arab Spring.
“I think the United States needs to understand this is a new region,” Muasher said. “It can no longer say: ‘If you are Libyan or Egyptian or Syrian, we’re for freedom, we are with you, but not if you are Palestinian.’ This is not a strong argument.”
The International Crisis Group’s Robert Malley said the administration was divided, with one group fearing a veto could radicalize Arab opinion and be “an extremely negative development in terms of US image ... in the Arab world.”
The other view is “that this is expected, people know the US is going to veto it,” he said.
A Palestinian decision to internationalize their drive for a state would be a blow to US-sponsored peace efforts, but despite the unpleasant consequences of a US veto, a change of heart by Obama looks impossible. Weakened by the stagnant economy, targeted by Republicans who brand him anti-Israel because of his clashes with Netanyahu and facing a re-election race in which Jewish voters are important, Obama has no political capital left to burn.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS