It looks like the Palestinians could still join with a number of Arab and Europeans states in seeking a way to avoid a confrontation with the United States that would put the US in a very awkward spot and would be likely to be bruising by both parties. The NY Times reports that the Palestinians are moving away from the Security Council option that would be likely to be produce a lose/ lose outcome for both parties, and taking their case straight to the U.N. General Assembly where they are almost certain to prevail. But there is also a conflicting report in the L.A. Times I include below.
Palestinians Pressured to Seek General Assembly Vote on Statehood
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 13, 2011
CAIRO — A top negotiator for the Palestinian Authority said Tuesday night that its leadership was weighing the strong urging of both the Arab states and the Europeans to turn to the General Assembly of the United Nations — and not its Security Council — in a bid to win international recognition as a state.
P.A. President Abbas is flying to Amman Jordan to meet with Tony Blair on Wednesday.
Mr. Blair and the Europeans “said they have some ideas and we are waiting to see the ideas formulated,” Mr. Erekat said. “We don’t intend to confront the U.S. or anyone else for that matter,” he added. “We want to present the United Nations vote as an opportunity for all of us to preserve the two-state solution.”
At the same time, Nabil el Araby, the secretary general of the Arab League, said after meeting with the Palestinian leadership that “it is obvious that the Palestinian authority and the Arab countries are leaning towards going to the General Assembly,” though he added that the Arab League was awaiting Mr. Abbas’s final decision within two days.
Obama and Hillary badly wanted to avoid vetoing Palestinian Statehood in the Security Council.
U.S. Scrambles to Avert Palestinian Vote at U.N.
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 13, 2011
The administration has spent months trying to avoid casting its veto in the Security Council to block membership of a Palestinian state. It also hopes to avert a vote for the more symbolic change in status in the General Assembly, which senior officials, echoing the Israelis, have warned would be harmful to Israeli-Palestinian peace and could foment violence.
But with negotiations long stalled, the Palestinians and their allies say that such a vote would preserve the idea of a two-state solution.
The timing of the confrontation has created a diplomatic quandary for President Obama, putting him in the position of opposing Palestinian aspirations for self-determination even as his administration has championed Arabs who have overthrown leaders in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya or who seek to in Syria. At the same time, he faces pressure from Israel’s vocal supporters in Congress to block the vote or cut off military and economic assistance the United States has given to the Palestinians.
Unfortunately President Obama is unable to admit that the U.S. brokered peace initiative has reached a dead end because of the Netanyahu government's rigid intransigence in refusing to halt expansions of the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank (including Greater Jerusalem Israel has vastly expanded), due to the domestic political situation in the U.S.
Obama was treated shabbily by Netanyahu who even lectured Obama during a photo op, so he probably agrees with former Secretary of Defense Gates statement last week that characterized Netanyahu as an "ungrateful ally"
'Gates called Netanyahu an ungrateful ally to U.S. and a danger to Israel'
According to Goldberg, several senior government officials claim Gates told President Obama that not only is “Netanyahu ungrateful, but also endangering his country by refusing to grapple with Israel’s growing isolation and with the demographic challenges it faces if it keeps control of the West Bank."
Here is the conflicting report in the LA Times.
WEST BANK: 18 years after Oslo, Palestinians try a new tack
At his last news conference in Ramallah before traveling to New York to join the Palestinian delegation there to prepare the final documents for the statehood application, Shtayeh denied what he called “rumors” that the Palestinian Authority was backing down under Arab pressure.
He insisted that the plan was still on, and with the Security Council, not the General Assembly. He said Abbas was going to submit the application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a couple of days before speaks before the General Assembly on Sept. 23. In that speech, said Shtayeh, Abbas would "ask the member states to recognize Palestine as a state on the 1967 borders."
No doubt Obama and Hillary are well aware that the policies of Netanyahu far right ruling coalition are now taking Israel down a path toward a permanent occupation in the West Bank, leaving Palestinian leaders with little choice but to seek an alternative to the stalled U.S. brokered peace initiative.
Analysis: Israel circles wagons ahead of Palestinian vote
Some will heed his call, but at least 120 of the 193 U.N. member states look ready to support the Palestinians -- maybe opening the way for them to join other international bodies, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
Israel fears it could use the ICC to take action against some 500,000 Israelis who live in territory seized in 1967 and whose settlements most world powers regard as illegal.
Instead of digging in their heels and in a futile attempt stop this inevitable diplomatic Tsunami the Israelis should be preparing themselves for a new reality where Israelis no longer make all of the important decisions that rule the everyday lives of Palestinians in the West Bank.
After 44 years its time for the Palestinians to determine their own future.