Obama At UN: Peace Is Hard

Today, at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama addressed a packed crowd of the world’s highest level dignitaries from countries including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Sudan, France and Iran.

“I would like to talk to you about an issue which is at the heart of the United Nations; the pursuit of peace in an imperfect world. A lasting peace for nations and individuals depends on a sense of justice and opportunity. It depends on struggle, sacrifice and compromise.”

Amidst widespread criticism of his current policies regarding Israel, Obama stood firm on the United States’ position in regards to Palestinian statehood. 

“The lesson of Ireland and Sudan will be the path to a Palestinian state. Negotiations between the two parties,” he said. “America has invested so much time and effort in a building of a Palestinian state. But understand this as well, America’s friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. We must commit to Israel’s security. Let us be honest with ourselves. Israel is small country of eight million people where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off the map. Those are facts and they cannot be denied. Israel deserves recognition. That is the truth. Each side has legitimate aspirations. The deadlock will only be broken when each side learns to stand in the other’s shoes and see the world in each other’s eyes.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will call on the UN General Assembly to vote in support of a separate Palestinian state at the end of the week. He is expected to win the two-thirds majority of 129 votes needed within the General Assembly. Nonetheless, Susan Rice, the US Ambassador for the United Nations has stated several times the US, which holds a permanent seat at the Security Council, would veto the request. The General Assembly vote is being viewed by many critics within the international community as a symbolic gesture more than a shift in policy relations with Palestine.

“One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine,” Obama said. “I believe then as I do now that Palestinians need a state of their own. But a genuine agreement needs to be made by Israelis and Palestinians themselves.”

The President highlighted his plan for a two-state solution which he announced in May of this year. He added he understood clearly the frustration by the lack of progress as expressed by the Palestinian government. 

“The question is not the goal that we seek. But how we reach that goal. I am convinced there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has lasted for decades. Peace is hard to come. It does not come from statements at the United Nations. Ultimately, peace depends on compromise and on people to live side by side.”

Obama also underscored his Administration’s achievements in setting a new direction with the world including the withdrawal of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He strongly criticized the Iranian and Syrian governments. He immediately called on the Security Council to impose sanctions on the Syrian government.

 “The fact is peace is hard. We still live in a world scarred by conflict.” 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also stressed the importance of cooperation.  He canvassed the UN’s role as the world’s first emergency responder and the significant role the United Nations continues to play in maintaining peace in countries like Somalia, Sudan, Haiti and Cote d-Ivoire.

“This year, the UN peacekeeping budget will be over 8 billion dollars. To prevent violations of human rights, we must work for the rule of law and stand against impunity.  In the Middle East, we must break the stalemate. We have long agreed the Palestinians need  a state.”

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…

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…

Palestine's Admission To UN Can Be Positive, Say Advocates On Both Sides

As the upcoming United Nations (UN) General Assembly creeps closer, Israeli policy experts across the world are hurrying to gather information about Palestine’s potential declaration of statehood. Many wonder if such an act will hinder or advance the Arab-Israeli peace process. 

After peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine were stalled for almost two years, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced in March to AFP (Agence France Presse) that the Palestinian leadership planned to request full membership to the UN, along with recognition of a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September. 

Omar Dajani, former adviser to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), told reporters today that such a request has three anticipated favorable outcomes for Palestinians:

1. Palestinian legal position in negotiations will be greatly improved.

2. Pressure will be placed on the Israeli government to return to the negotiating table and halt construction on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.                  

3. Mass mobilization and non-violent resistance will be promoted in the West Bank and Gaza strip. 

“It is important to look at these goals and see how they can be coextensive with the Israel peace camp and conversely, how they can be turned to a destructive direction in the process of peace,” Dajani said. 

The “destructive direction” Dajani referred to is that Palestinian leaders will be violating existing agreements between them and Israel if they involve the UN. Past agreements, such as the Declaration of Principles and the Roadmap, require that disputes between Israel and Palestine be settled via direct negotiations and not through third parties, such as the UN.

Consequentially, by involving the UN and violating existing peace agreements, spectators fear it will destroy any hope of further peace negotiations. 

Gadi Baltiansky, former press secretary for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and director-general of the Geneva Initiative, however, believes that the Israel advocacy community is making too big of a deal out of this.

“Every year so many resolutions are taken by the UN and no one pays attention,” he told reporters. “The Palestinians are just trying to upgrade their status in the UN…It is not a dramatic move that will change history.”

“I am not sure this will be a constructive move that leads towards a better future,” Baltiansky continued. “But when we think about the other options without negotiations, this can be better.”

Both Baltiansky and Dajani agreed that the UN vote can be a positive experience if used as an opportunity to relaunch peace talks. 

“See it as a potential resolution that is good for both sides,” Baltiansky said. “Use language that both sides can live with. Imagine a resolution that says the world will recognize a capital in Jerusalem and Palestine with a border in between them. For the first time the world will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

“Make it into a resolution that references territory swaps,” Dajani said. “Such a resolution will move them forward with the peace process since they will understand that whatever territorial concessions were made to accommodate settlement growth would be compensated for them.”  

While many are worried about the UN General Assembly in September, it is clear that the sequential step is most important. It is after the UN vote that both sides will need to work together toward future peace talks.