Abbas Gathers Support For Statehood; Perry Panders To Neocons

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is meeting today with international leaders at the United Nations, drumming up support for his bid to get the world body to recognize the state of Palestine.

The controversial move is further isolating Israel at the UN and putting the U.S. in a tough spot, since it supports the pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring, but will veto any effort at the UN Security Council to unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood.

“We hope the United States will revise its position and be on the side of the majority of nations or countries who want to support the Palestinian right to have self determination and independence,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said at an impromptu press conference after meeting with Venezuela’s foreign minister.

Abbas is angered by two decades of talks that have failed to reach a deal leading to Palestinian statehood, especially amid what he believes is further stalling tactics by Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

The Palestinian leader is meeting today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

In an 11th-hour plea, Netanyahu now says he is ready to get back to serious negotiations to try to head off a vote on statehood, as early as Friday, when Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly.

Netanyahu also plans to address the UN on Friday.

Conservative GOP presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is seeking to take advantage of the international tensions, meeting with Jewish and Israeli leaders to blame Obama for the Palestinians move to get statehood.

“Simply put, we would not be here today at the precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama Policy in the Middle East wasn’t naïve, arrogant, misguided and dangerous,” Perry said in prepared remarks released ahead of his speech today.

Despite Obama’s firm position that his Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice will veto Palestinian statehood at the UN Security Council, Perry blasted the President for his even-handed treatment of the Israelis and Palestinians.

“It must be said, first, that Israel is our oldest and strongest democratic ally in the Middle East and has been for more than 60 years,” Perry said. “The Obama Policy of moral equivalency, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a dangerous insult.”

Perry, who has not addressed foreign policy matters very much on campaign trail, was dismissed by detractors as pandering to neo-conservative Republicans rather than adding anything meaningful to the dialogue.

Read more from Kenneth R. Bazinet at The Baz File…

House Intelligence Chair Assesses Threats Abroad

By Adrianna McGinley

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) pushed the importance of American leadership abroad in combating national security threats.  

During an event Friday held by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Rogers addressed questions regarding U.S. involvement in the Middle East and the military rise of China.

“We must be prepared for the potential threat that a rising China poses,” Rogers said. “We must keep a strong American presence in the region. We must understand the Chinese ambitions and tensions and capabilities and how they see their future. China will only surpass us if we let them.”

Questions were also posed concerning Iran and its potential threat to Israel.

“Iran’s leaders have clearly expressed their desires to annihilate Israel. We should take their leaders’ public sentiments and statements and intentions seriously,” Rogers said. “They speak volumes about their desires and how they maintain power and position, even in their own country. We must therefore recognize the strategic threat and position that Iran poses.”

Rogers expressed concern for political differences interfering with decision making on international involvement, and the effect it can have on America’s credibility abroad.

“If every decision on international engagement is made through your own domestic political troubles, we are never going to come to the right conclusion ever again on international engagement,” Rogers said. “In Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya, and in the rest of the world, our allies and our enemies must know that when America intervenes, we will not cut and run. Our enemies must know without a doubt that when America commits itself, we do not commit ourselves to artificial timelines of withdrawals or limits on troop levels. America commits itself to one thing, achieving a lasting victory.” 

Palestinians Seek Path to New Status at UN

As questions surrounding the procedural details of Palestine’s bid for UN admission continue to go unanswered, Palestinian representatives have made one thing clear: next Friday President Mahmoud Abbas will tell the world body his country has the right to join the international community.

Recognition as a full fledged member state would require unanimous support from the UN Security Council, but the US has already indicated it would use its veto at the security body to prevent such a move. 

Palestinian leadership could also settle for an upgrade to its observer status by seeking recognition through the General Assembly, where it expects to receive the necessary 2/3 majority of votes, but some Palestinian officials view the General Assembly path as the lesser option. 

“We are considering all these options, but the final decision has not been made..If one road is blocked we will follow another one, but the objective is still the same.”  Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Authority representative at the UN told reporters outside the Security Council. 

Mansour says President Abbas continues to engage in discussions with regional organizations like the EU and Arab League but that the decision to seek Palestinian recognition at the world body had already been made. 

“The issue of the state of Palestine will be resolved. It will not be up for discussion any more, regardless of its status at the UN, whether it is a full member or observer member, we are a state and it will be legislated at the UN that we will be a state.“  

In a press conference earlier today, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said it was up to UN member states to reach a decision on the Palestinian bid for admission.

Ban said his role as Secretary General was limited to technical oversight of issues surrounding the request. 

“I have not received any application yet. If I receive it then I will refer it to the Security Council.”

The UN chief also said he was profoundly troubled by the lack of progress in the Middle East Peace process and urged both sides to return to the negotiation table as quickly as possible.

  “I’m asking them[Israeli and Palestinians] to enter into meaningful negotiation and the international community has a duty to create some conditions favorable to this.” he told reporters. “Israel has a duty to create such conditions, issuing all these new settlements has not been helpful. At the same time Palestinians should also try to sit together with the Israeli people.” 

Palestinian leadership walked away from talks last September after the Israeli government refused to extend a freeze on settlement construction. 

The Obama administration made use of its Security Council veto for the first time earlier this year when it blocked the passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. The US was the only Security Council member to vote against the resolution.

 In a New York Times Op-Ed earlier this week, Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal warned American officials a veto of the Palestinian statehood initiative could fatally undermine US credibility in the region and even strengthen Iran. 

 Former US President Jimmy Carter also came out in favor of the Palestinian bid earlier this week, saying he “reluctantly” supported the move as a legitimate alternative to the current stalemate in negotiations

Israel Clears Out Embassy In Jordan Fearing Repeat Of Egypt

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

The Israeli government is taking no chances of a repeat of the weekend ransacking of its embassy in Cairo, pulling back its ambassador and most staff from its diplomatic mission in Jordan ahead a planned million-man march in support of the United Nations recognizing proposed Palestinian statehood.

Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Daniel Nevo and his staff left its complex in Amman in a convoy overnight. The diplomats hope to return Sunday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. Nevo and his staff routinely return to Israel for the sabbath.

The anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt and Jordan is particularly troubling because they are the only Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel.

President Obama had to intervene diplomatically on behalf of Israel to save the lives of trapped security personal in the Israeli embassy in Cairo. 

Now the U.S. embassy in Jordan is also under increased protection by Jordanian police after Wikileaks diplomatic cables suggested a secret plan to turn Jordan into a homeland for Palestinians. There was a small protest outside the U.S. embassy in Amman yesterday in which demonstrators burned the American flag and demanded that the American diplomats be expelled from Jordan.

The region is swiftly becoming a powder keg amid the Palestinian Authority’s plan to seek statehood at the UN. 

The U.S. has vowed to veto any move for statehood on the UN Security Council and is lobbying other countries to do also oppose the move. Israel, however, increasingly becoming isolated and faces widespread support globally for Palestinian statehood.

Nonetheless, the U.S. is still hoping the statehood issue is abandoned, fearing a veto could trigger even more anti-American demonstrations in the Muslim world.

“We continue to see any kind of effort by the Palestinians in New York as counterproductive and not in the interest of achieving a two-state solution, which is our goal,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

“Our argument conveyed to countries around the world is that this is a counterproductive measure by the Palestinians, and because of that, it doesn’t get anybody any closer to a comprehensive peace settlement, and that’s why we’ve got to remain focused on getting them back to the negotiating table,” Toner added.

The world’s leading Islamic democracy, Turkey, which has diplomatic and trade relations with Tel Aviv, is also ripped at the Israeli government for failing to apologize for its soldiers killing nine Turkish civilians on a ship that was part of a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza last year.

A UN-appointed panel found the Israeli commandos faced “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers,” but was still heavy handed in its response that led to the massacre on aboard the ship. “It seems to us to have been too heavy a response too quickly. It was an excessive reaction to the situation,” the panel’s report stated.

An internal Israeli probe cleared its military of any wrongdoing.

Read more from Kenneth R. Bazinet at The Baz File…

Father of Detained Israeli Soldier Says Son’s Continued Captivity and Palestinian Bid for Statehood are Incompatible

by Eli Fink

The father of an Isreali soldier held by Hamas in Gaza says the UN General Assembly should resist supporting a bid for Palestinian recognition at the world body until his son is released. 

“The Palestinians cannot go on with this grave breach of international law and humanitarian law and at the same time ask for legitimacy and to be a member state of the United Nations- It doesn’t go together.” Noam Shalit, father of Gilad Shalit, told Talk Radio News. “We are not asking the leaders of the world not to vote on behalf of the Palestinians [at the GA meetings this month], but to stop breaching international law and humanitarian law and release our son unconditionally.”   

 Shalit is meeting with UN diplomats in New York this week, the most recent attempt in a long list of family efforts to secure Gilad’s freedom. He and his wife Aviva have already set up a protest tent outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem and have been strong proponents of a prisoner exchange deal between the Israeli government and Hamas.

Gilad Shalit was a nineteen-year-old corporal in the Israeli Defenses Forces in 2006 when he was abducted by militants associated with the Gaza-based Palestinian faction Hamas. His current condition and the terms of his detention are unknown as no outside visitors have been permitted to see him. In the fall of 2009 Hamas put out a 2 minute video of the former tank driver which proved he was still alive in exchange for the release of twenty female Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.