Obama Administration Must Block Palestinian Statehood Gambit at U.N.

James Phillips / November 10, 2010

If the standoff over continued Israeli settlements in the West Bank continues, the Palestinian Authority has threatened to abandon negotiations with Israel and appeal to the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian State within the territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Such a unilateral move by the Palestinians would deal a coup de grace to the comatose Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon, dismissed the threat as a bluff intended to pressure Israel into capitulating to Palestinian demands to permanently halt all construction of new settlements as a prerequisite to peace negotiations. Ayalon also charged that this threat demonstrated that the Palestinian Authority was not serious about peace negotiations. But Israel is taking the threat seriously. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly will meet with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week to urge him to oppose such a back door route to statehood. (more…)