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Abbas Set for Scaled-Down Bid at UN
(Washington Post) Joel Greenberg - PA President Mahmoud Abbas heads this week to the UN to ask for an upgrade of the Palestinians' status there to a non-member state. Facing stalled peace efforts with the Israelis, an impasse in attempts to heal the rift between his Fatah movement and the Islamist group Hamas, and economic unrest in the West Bank, Abbas returns to the UN after a year in which the Palestinian issue has been sidelined by concerns about the Iranian nuclear program and the unfolding Arab Spring. Israel and the U.S. oppose the move to change the Palestinians' status, calling it a unilateral step to decide an issue that should be resolved through negotiations. If a resolution on PA status is submitted, Abbas could risk losing promised financial aid from Washington as well as tax and customs transfers from the Israelis, funds the PA desperately needs. Palestinian officials acknowledge that any such resolution is unlikely to be presented in the weeks leading up to the U.S. election, so as not to antagonize President Obama. Nathan Thrall, a Middle East analyst for the International Crisis Group, said that the Palestinian leadership's UN bid had become "a problem for them, because they want to preserve their relations with the United States, which has communicated to them very clearly that it doesn't want them to do it."