On Wednesday it seems that the Palestinian's launched their bid for statehood delivering a letter to the U.N. office in Ramallah and kicking off the campaign to become the world's 194th State.
But, as they say... "hold the phone". The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO - the recognized representative body of the Palestinian People) says that the letter is not official. According to the PL0, no one (including the P.A.) has the authority to send an official letter regarding international relations but them.
So... in effect what just happened? Is the bid underway or not?
According to Maan News: Palestinians launch UN campaign as leaders meet in Ramallah
In Ramallah on Thursday, the solidarity campaign got under way with a march to UN headquarters in the West Bank city, where organizers presented a letter requesting that Ban support the membership bid.
"Today we began our campaign on the ground and we chose the UN building because it represents the United Nations and we expect them to respond to our demands," Ahmed Assaf, the campaign's coordinator, told AFP.
"We are no less important than the other 193 states in the United Nations, and our message will ask for our state to be 194."
A copy of the letter shown to Agence France-Presse said the campaign would continue "until the state of Palestine is finally admitted as member state number 194."
Seems simple enough... The idea is that the Mahmoud Abbas will make a formal declaration on September 20th and speak to it on Sept. 23rd when the issue is to be put to vote.
However, apparently this is not an official letter. Haaretz reports: PLO officials say letter to UN chief earlier Thursday was sent by grassroots activists, not Palestinian officials.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) denied Thursday that it had submitted an official request to the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a member of the world body, explaining that the campaign launched in Ramallah earlier in the day was the work solely of grassroots activists......
..... spokesman for the PLO negotiations affairs department, Xavier Abu Eid, however, said that letter was not official and only the PLO could make the final and official request for state recognition.
A date for the submission had yet to be set, the official told the German Press Agency dpa.
"The PA does not have any international relations mandate. The only one that can negotiate or sign agreements is the PLO, so the PLO is going to submit the official request," he said.
Now, will there be a submission to the U.N.? That seems assured but when is the question. Right now the U.S. is in the area on a major diplomatic effort to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table. However, it seems that the differences between all sides (Israeli, Palestinian and United States) are wide. .
"The gap between the Palestinian and US positions is still wide after the meeting," presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
"There are efforts being made and an agreement to continue communication with the US administration and the (Middle East) Quartet envoy," he said.
His remarks came shortly after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas held talks with Washington's Middle East envoy David Hale and Dennis Ross, senior adviser to US President Barack Obama.
Palestinian President Abbas is vowing to move ahead with his push for a State but also says that this does not supplant direct negotiations with Israel regarding making that State a reality. In a Haaretz Headline; Abbas: Palestinian independence bid does not contradict peace process with Israel
.....Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused Wednesday to back down from a bid to have the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood, telling US officials the move did not contradict the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.....
....A statement from Abbas' office said the Palestinian leader told Hale Wednesday that the PA was prepared to resume peace talks, if Israel accepted the principle of a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines, and agreed to a total halt to settlement activity.
At the same time... The U.S. has stated that it will veto any bid at the Security Council in unequivocal terms. In the Haaretz (and Maan) articles :
"The President has been very clear that a UN resolution to recognize Palestine will not get us to the two-state solution that both parties seek and that most of the world seeks", Sherman said in an exchange with the US Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). "He has been unrelenting in saying that such a resolution is not in our interest or in the interest of the world or the two parties." According to Sherman, "the administration has been very clear as well that if any such resolution were put in front of the Security Council, that we would veto it".
Meanwhile... In the U.S. Republicans are urging Obama to veto Palestinian statehood bid at UN
Ros-Lehtinen said she felt that the Obama administration's diplomatic "full court press" was coming too late. She urged the Democratic president to spell out the U.S. veto intention more clearly himself instead of relying on what she called "diplomatic nice speak." U.S. officials have said Washington views the Palestinian push for statehood recognition at the UN as "misguided." ....
.....To counter that, Ros-Lehtinen last week introduced legislation aiming to cut off U.S. funds for any UN organization that embraces an upgrade to the Palestinians' diplomatic status. The United States is the biggest contributor to the U.N. budget, paying about 22 percent of its core budget and 25 percent of its peacekeeping costs.
While acknowledging the Palestinians could obtain a majority of votes needed in the UN General Assembly for a status upgrade, Ros-Lehtinen insisted the United States oppose this, saying it was better to be "right than in the majority."
Of course in Israel there are a wide variety of voices. This Israeli Right has disappeared around the bend of rationality.
Yoni Yosef, spokesman for Jewish settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, suggested invoking the "Dromi Law," which permits home owners to kill intruders and could be used to shoot Palestinians attempting to approach Jewish homes in the neighborhood.
Coalition chairman MK Zeev Elkin (Likud ) blasted Israel Defense Forces preparations for defending the settlements, saying: "The top brass turned into the main lobbyist for the Palestinian Authority against the political leadership, which is responsible for the senior commanders' adoption of the two-state concept."...
...Yaakov Katz (National Union ) called on his colleagues to organize marches of thousands of right-wing activists toward Palestinian cities in response to the marches on Jewish communities being discussed by Palestinians. He said he suspected the IDF will not ready an appropriate response to Palestinian marches but would deploy large forces if it feared countermarches by the right.
Here is a government MK and Coalition Chairman accusing the IDF for being the "main lobbyist for the Palestinian Authority. On can only say that this idea is insane. I mean one can expect this kind of nonsense from the Right Wing settlers in Sheikh Jarrah and one can expect it from the lunatics in National Union. They are going to say this kind of thing. BUT from a Likud official??? BTW, Elkin was a former Kadima M.K. but quit when he felt that Kadima had become a Left Wing party (so this tells you what you are dealing with).
Of course, not to be outdone by the Israeli Right... Hamas has to bring it's brand of "Teh Stoopid" to the table. They have simply refused to allow any public demonstrations IN FAVOR of the U.N. move.
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Popular Resistance Campaign coordinator Mahmud Az-Ziq said Wednesday Hamas is refusing to allow any mass protests in Gaza in support of the UN bid.
Hamas has informed factions in Gaza that they are not in favor of any popular action to support the bid, Az-Ziq said.
I want to end this article with a reference to a Carlo Strenger column in Haaretz:
September may bring the death of the two-state solution - and the Jewish state
Strenger rightly argues that the Israeli Path of no halt to the settlements, no recognition of the Palestinians as a separate State, no negotiations will lead to the end of the Two State Settlement. He makes the point that President Abbas has trapped himself with his statements to pursue the U.N. bid. Strenger also makes the statement that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has trapped himself with his commentary and committment to building. Bottom line of Strenger's article: What happens when the Palestinians wake up Sept. 24th and nothing in reality has changed?
Well as some here have noted, and Strenger reiterates, the Palestinians will then turn their attention to become full Israeli citizens. The Hard Right (Yisrael Betainu and allies)of course will move to either "Transfer them" (ethnic cleansing) or restrict their citizenship (apartheid). Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Likud will then be forced to make some very hard choices. There is no way the Israelis can have both a Jewish and Democratic State in a State from the Med. to the Jordan. It just can't happen unless they do the unthinkable and remove the population.
As Strenger points out:
But all these proposed laws do not provide an answer to the simple question how a state with close to 40 percent Palestinian citizenry could maintain a Jewish character by democratic means.
Thus Netanyahu may go into history not only as them man who killed the two-state solution, but also the dream of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people that he claims to defend.
Please discuss