Monday, September 26, 2011

UN Security Council Meets On Palestine, But No Vote For At Least Weeks

Do not be fooled by today's closed-door meeting at the United Nation's Security Council: It will be a long slog before any votes or vetoes are cast in the Palestinian statehood issue.

The UN Security Council will not set up a committee to review Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's application for statehood (formally presented last Friday) until then end of this week, at the earliest.

So while the UN Security Council is meeting privately to discuss the future of Palestine, we are talking weeks, perhaps months, before a vote is taken, the CBC reports.

In the meantime, Obama administration is working hard behind the scenes to get UN Security Council members to oppose statehood in effort to avoid its promised veto that would alienate its Arab and Muslim allies, Fox News reports.

The Palestinians need nine votes on the UN Security Council to win statehood, but they only have six for sure — China, Russia, Brazil, Lebanon, India and South Africa -- even without the veto. China formally jumped on board today.

Palestine obviously will not be granted statehood, given the promised U.S. veto, but some Israelis do not think that their leader has helped sell the case that peace talks are the path to freedom for the Palestinians.  

One Haaretz writer even called Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's address to the UN General Assembly a speech of lies.

And in other distantly related news, AlJazeera is trying to shake its reputation as an anti-Western news agency, so it will not help its case that one of its ex-reporters admitted he was an alleged Hamas operative while on the job, the Jerusalem Post reports.

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