Daily Alert Archives

The UN Vote and Palestinian Statehood: An Unnecessary Gamble

(Foreign Affairs) Robert M. Danin - Phase II of the 2003 Quartet Roadmap for Peace offered the option of creating "an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders" as a stepping stone to a negotiated permanent final-status agreement. The Palestinian leadership long rejected this option. Now they have effectively reversed course, hoping for just such an outcome with their effort to attain international statehood recognition at the UN. But the net outcome would likely set back, rather than advance, their national aspirations. First, accession to the UN would undermine Palestinians' moral and historical claims to being a stateless people, a status that has kept their plight at the top of the international agenda for decades. In the international community's eyes, moreover, the conflict with Israel would effectively become a border dispute - one of scores around the world - not an existential challenge to the Palestinians. This would reduce the saliency and centrality of the Palestinian issue for many. By adopting a publicly confrontational approach toward the Israelis, the Palestinian leadership has only managed to convince Israelis and many in the international community that they seek to delegitimize the Jewish state, not live alongside it. The writer is a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and a former Director for the Levant and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the National Security Council.
2011-09-16 00:00:00
Full Article