Marching Forward
With the Palestinian bid at the United Nations expected in the next two weeks, Israel and the United States are making last ditch efforts to stop the Palestinian efforts. However, Palestinian leaders continue to move forward with their plans, calling last minute diplomatic efforts, “too late.”
Current conjecture is that the Palestinian leadership will submit a formal request to the United Nations requesting full membership in the UN on September 20. President Mahmoud Abbas will then address the UN General Assembly on September 23. To become a member of the UN, a state must first be recommended by the Security Council. While U.S. officials have not stated unequivocally that the United States will veto a Palestinian resolution, it very likely. In a Plan B, as CMEP has discussed before, the Palestinians could subsequently take a proposal to the General Assembly asking for an upgrade in their status from non-state observer body to non-member state. Palestinians are expected to easily get the votes needed if such a situation arises.
In efforts to dissuade the Palestinian leadership from the move, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Palestinian president this week asking him to abandon the plan, and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East David Hale and Dennis Ross from the State Department are also in the West Bank this week to try to stop the move through face-to-face meetings with Abbas.
An Israeli source with knowledge of the meeting told Ha’aretz that, “this was the first time the Americans had spelled out the full negative implications of the Palestinian request to the UN.” The source went on to say, “The Americans told Abu Mazen [Abbas] the whole truth to his face in a rather harsh way." Dennis Ross and David Hale reportedly warned Abbas that any request to the Security Council would be vetoed and even going to the General Assembly would result in a reduction of the approximately $500 million a year the Palestinians get in United States foreign aid.
From his compound in Ramallah, President Abbas responded to the pressures by saying, “To be frank with you, they came too late. They wasted all the time from the beginning of this year … til today or yesterday, they wasted all this time. Now when they come here to tell us, okay we have this idea or this package and don't go to the UN, we will not accept it."
For more information about the Palestinian Initiative at the UN, check out CMEP’s updated resource page on our website.
Preparing for the Worst
With the opening of the UN General Assembly session only four days away, Israel is continuing efforts to persuade diplomats around the world that the move in the UN is ill-advised. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told the Israeli Hebrew paper Ma’ariv, "This is a diplomatic endeavor against all odds. I am trying, literally down to the last moment, to persuade the ambassadors of UN member countries that this unilateral course of action by the Palestinians won't lead to peace and won't lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but only to violence and bloodshed.”
President Abbas has explicitly called for any demonstrations in support of the UN effort to be non-violent and to remain within the boundaries of Palestinian villages and cities.
However, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is still preparing for violent confrontations in the West Bank. They are increasing the training of settler security teams in anticipation of popular protests and possible widespread demonstrations in the wake of UN action.. The settler security teams have been a presence in the West Bank since the start of the second intifada in 2000. The military is establishing boundaries that protestors won’t be allowed to cross and simulating scenarios of confrontation with the security teams, who are currently armed with military-issue M-16 automatic rifles. Shlomo Vaknin, security officer of the Yesha Council, a settler organization, said despite reports that settler security teams have been armed with non-lethal weapons like tear gas and stun grenades, he believes that so far the military had not done so.
Ungrateful Ally
A recent disclosure of comments made by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates demonstrates the tension between some political perspectives on U.S. strategy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Writing for Bloomberg News, journalist Jeffery Goldberg revealed aspects of a high-level discussion in which
Secretary Gates said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not only 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.” The discussion took place not long after the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington in May, before Gates retired from his Cabinet post.
Gates displeasure was echoed internally by others within the Obama Administration who were dismayed at Netanyahu’s public “sermon” to the U.S. President, broadcast on live television when the Israeli leader was in Washington.
Goldberg writes, “that display of impudence left the president and his team feeling unusually angry. Shortly afterward, Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, called the Israeli ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, to communicate the displeasure of the White House in a reportedly heated way.”
Disproportionate Building
According to Peace Now, an anti-settlement group in Israel, Israeli settlers are building homes at almost twice the pace of housing construction within the 1967 lines. The report says, "Whereas in Israel the pace of construction... was one housing unit for every 235 residents, in the settlements the pace of construction was a unit for every 123 residents.”
Peace Now's revelation comes after 430,000 Israelis went to the streets throughout Israel last Saturday to demand social justice and protest the high cost of living, especially the lack of affordable housing. This marked the largest demonstration in Israeli history. After 50 days of protests, which have been marked by “tent cities” around the country, organizers said the tents will be dismantled but the movement would continue in other ways.
The Price Tag Effect
On Monday, Israeli soldiers demolished three homes in the unauthorized Israeli settlement Migron, five kilometers North of Jerusalem and East of Ramallah. Though the dismantling of the settlement was first ordered more than eight years ago by Ariel Sharon, the demolitions drew the ire of settlers, who exacted a “price tag”against both Palestinians and the IDF. In their latest retribution, intended to show the Israeli government the consequences of demolitions, a mosque and several Palestinian vehicles were torched near Nablus and another mosque was vandalized with graffiti. In addition, for the first time the settlers targeted the IDF by breaking the windows on 13 army vehicles in an army base located near the Beit El settlement.
In August, the Israeli High Court ordered the demolition of the homes in Migron after it ruled the outpost is built on Palestinian land.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said of the retributive acts, “This was an abhorrent crime directed against commanders and vehicles, the mission of which is to protect the lives of Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria.”
Palmer Report Fallout
Last week, the United Nations issued its report on the flotilla raids that took place more than a year ago, in May 2010. The report concludes that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza is legal, but that the Israeli forces who boarded the ship used excessive force.
Israeli-Turkish relations, already strained due to Israel’s refusal to apologize for the incident that killed nine Turkish activists, have now hit a new low. Turkish officials ordered Israeli diplomats to leave the country and passengers traveling between the two nations have been subjected to long periods of questioning before entering.
A more ominous sign of the fraying relationship is evident in the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announcement that Turkish warships will escort any future Gaza aid flotillas.
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