• Palestinians face US counteroffensive on UN vote

    President Mahmoud Abbas said he would demand full membership of the United Nations for a Palestinian state when he goes to the U.N. General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    By Andrea Mitchell and Catherine Chomiak, NBC News

    U.S  officials are working feverishly to persuade the Palestinians to back down from what is still only a threat to go to the United Nations Security Council with their demand for immediate statehood.

    On Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he will request full membership at the United Nations when the General Assembly convenes next week.

    One official told NBC News after Abbas's announcement that "this is a negotiation. They say they are doing it until they say they aren't doing it."

    The U.S. has been resolute in its opposition to the proposed action and is engaged in frantic last-minute diplomatic discussions to try to head it off.

    Just Thursday, Secretary Clinton reaffirmed the administration’s view, saying, "we believe strongly that the road to peace and two states living side-by-side does not go through New York. It goes through Jerusalem and Ramallah and it is our absolute conviction that we need to get the parties back to the negotiating table."

    Clinton also recently dispatched two top Middle East diplomats to the region. U.S. envoys David Hale and Dennis Ross have met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. On the Palestinian side, they have met with Abbas and others.

    History or histrionics in UN’s Palestine vote?

     According to an official, the diplomats are offering alternatives to UN action, including a fast track to new talks between the two sides and further pressure on Israel to stop its settlements policy. 

    Their efforts may be paying off, as the Palestinian Authority has not yet taken the first procedural step needed to introduce a statehood resolution to the Security Council. 

    Israelis and Palestinians discuss their views on the Palestinians push for statehood at the U.N.

    The Palestinians would have to first send a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting that a resolution be brought to the Security Council. Ban in turn would write to the Security Council. A member of the council would then have to bring it up on behalf of the Palestinians. A resolution would then have to be drafted, debated and amended before it could be brought to a vote.

    The United States has said that it would veto such a resolution if it passes in the Security Council.  In order for a resolution to pass it must have nine votes of the council’s 15 members. If the resolution were to get nine votes, the U.S. or another of the five permanent members could exercise veto power.

    If the Palestinians either do not or cannot get the Security Council to vote on their resolution, they would seek the same status from the 193-member United Nations General Assembly. They will have overwhelming support in that body, and that would give them important leverage.

    However, the U.S. position remains that UN action will not bring about a two-state solution with both sides living in peace and security. “We all know that no matter what happens or doesn’t happen at the UN, the next day is not going to result in the kind of changes that the United States wishes to see,” Clinton said.

    Andrea Mitchell is NBC News' chief foreign affairs correspondent. Catherine Chomiak is NBC News' State Department producer.

    Palestinian UN vote: What is it? Why now?

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  • History or histrionics in U.N.'s Palestine vote?

    Nasser Shiyoukhi / AP

    A Palestinian holding a national flag climbs the separation barrier during a protest against its construction in the West Bank village of Walajeh, outside Jerusalem, on Friday.

    ANALYSIS

    By John Ray, NBC News  

    TEL AVIV, Israel – In this overheated part of the world, it is often difficult to tell the difference between history and histrionics.

    How much is really revolutionary, and how much is merely rhetoric, words that will run into the sands?

    For instance, no one can yet tell how the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya will work out. Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses? Or a genuinely fresh start?

    It’s the same with the Palestinian Authority’s decision to seek a United Nations-approved declaration of statehood.

    Is this a moment of truth, or just as likely, another weary milestone on a seemingly never-ending road to some kind of final settlement with Israel?

    Hope vs. reality
    That’s certainly the experience of Palestinian Attalah Tamimi. His face lined by the sun and his crew cut hair gray, he has witnessed many false dawns.

    On his wall, there is a photograph of a younger Tamimi as a prisoner in an Israeli jail. And there is another, in the uniform of Palestinian security forces.

    The years of fighting followed by peaceful protest and two decades of fruitless negotiations have not won back the land he says has been stolen by Israel.

    From a hilltop close to his West Bank home in the village of Nabi Saleh, Tamimi pointed across the valley to the red tiled roofs of a Jewish settlement.

    “They have built a swimming pool and a theater over my olive trees. We cannot even go to the well to draw water. The Jews say it’s a holy spring,” he said to  me.

    So now the United Nations beckons. And Tamimi, like many Palestinians, is caught between hope and reality.

    “In some ways it’s as important as 1988 when Yasser Arafat declared our Palestinian state. It is saying we are a nation, but we have never, ever had control of our land,” he said.

    “Now I want the United Nations to show that the world is with us. But I know we can never win until the Americans stop supporting Israel.’’

    Israelis and Palestinians discuss their views on the Palestinians push for statehood at the U.N.

    Showdown at the U.N.
    With both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly next Friday, Sept. 23, it looks as if it will be a day of dramatic diplomacy.

    But it will likely be a day which in itself decides nothing.

    That’s because if a vote to recognize Palestine eventually goes to the Security Council, the U.S., one of five veto-wielding members, will likely veto it. It would be a mistake, some suggest, delivering another blow to America’s reputation in the Arab world as it backs Israel, its closest ally in the region.

    Meanwhile, at the General Assembly, which consists of all member states, the Palestinians probably already have enough supporters to win some form of enhanced status, short of nationhood.

    Senior Palestinian officials tell me if nothing else, this will raise the morale of their people. It will at the very least shake the dice, they say.

    The problem comes for the Palestinian leadership if it does no more than that – if hopes and expectations are raised, but the checkpoints, Israeli troops and settlers remain in place.

    Familiar battle for Israel
    From an Israeli point of view, it all ties together in a familiar narrative. A Jewish David against their Arab Goliath. A battle they have fought every day since the Jewish State was founded in 1948.

    Here’s what Netanyahu had to say about his mission to New York during a press conference on Thursday:

    “Now I know that the General Assembly is not a place where Israel gets a fair hearing. I know that the automatic majorities there always rush to condemn Israel and twist truth beyond recognition.  But I’ve decided to go there anyway – not to win applause, but to speak the truth to every nation that wants to hear the truth.’’

    Echoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Israelis say the path to peace runs through negotiations in Jerusalem, not confrontation in New York.

    That said, it might have helped the Israeli case if their government had come up with some kind of plausible plan over the past year. Instead, they have been painted by the rest of the world as the foot-dragging intransigents; refusing, for example, President Barack Obama’s demands to halt settlements.

    Chilly neighborhood for Israel
    And now, after the Arab Spring, the diplomatic weather has turned chillier still.

    Israel has fallen out with its one-time friend, Turkey, a rising power in the Muslim world whose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is touring Arab Spring states and winning friends on the Arab street with an anti-Israeli zeal matched only by his enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause.

    “It's time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations,”  Erdogan declared to an enthusiastic audience in Cairo. “Let's raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East.”

    Egpyt, with a treaty dating back to 1979, is Israel’s most powerful neighbor and therefore its most important Arab partner in peace.

    But now, there are many in the maelstrom of forces unleashed by the uprising who are demanding that the treaty get torn up. Some of them even ransacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo a week ago.

    The Israeli response has been unusually muted and measured. Why? Because this is the axis that Israel sees as truly vital to its security.

    History is at stake  –  let’s not wreck it with histrionics, you know they’re reasoning.

    Related link: Palestinian vote: What is it? Why now?

  • Taking the pulse on the streets of Tel Aviv and Ramallah

    Israelis and Palestinians discuss their views on the Palestinian push for statehood at the U.N.

    Palestinians are planning to make a push for recognition as an independent state at the United Nations next week.

    While Israelis and Palestinians are divided on the subject, there is some nuances in their opinions. NBC's Paul Goldman and Lawahez Jabari took to the street in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, respectively, to check the pulse of both Jews and Arabs on the looming U.N. vote.

    "For Israel it’s a good thing because I think we should separate ourselves and having there own country will eventually mean less trouble for us," said Yoav Glazer in Tel Aviv.

    But Gabi Halevi felt that the Palestinians push for recognition should be done in a differently. "They should negotiate with Israel secretly, in a discreet way, not through the rule of the U.N. I don’t think this will be good for them."

    Click on the video above to hear more opinions on the UN vote.

    "If we become a state recognized by other countries then we will have a better way of fighting for our rights," said Ali Shuker in Ramallah.

  • Palestinian UN vote: What is it? Why now?

     

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Palestinians take part in an anti-US demonstration in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday. Dozens of Palestinians chanted slogans against the pressure by the US government on the Palestinian Authority to convince them to step down from the UN bid for membership state.

    By Yara Borgal, NBC News

    RAMALLAH, West Bank – The dusty miles of hillsides and olive groves, Arab villages, Jewish settlements and Israeli military checkpoints that make up the West Bank of the River Jordan are a world removed from the Vatican City. But one of the oddities of the Palestinians' latest efforts to build their own state is that the two might well end up on an equal diplomatic footing.

    One likely outcome of the Palestinian plan to take their case to the United Nations next week would see them elevated to the status of  “non-member observer’’ – the same status held by the pope’s city state.

    If they are lucky, it might be the best thing the Palestinians can achieve. 

    Seeking a different status
    Currently the Palestine Liberation Organization holds only “observer entity status” in the U.N.  If that status were to change to a full member, Palestinians would gain full voting rights at the U.N.

    However, in order for the General Assembly to admit Palestine as a full member state, U.N. Security Council approval is needed. The U.S., which opposes the Palestinian request, has veto power and the State Department has made it clear the U.S. will use it.

    “Washington has unfortunately declared that it’s going to veto our request,” said Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, a senior Palestinian official and an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    “We will try again. Israel was vetoed twice, Jordan was rejected more than once, Portugal was rejected five times, Japan was rejected six times and so on.  History has taught us that this issue is not a one shot; it’s a process.”

    Option B
    Another option for the Palestinian Authority is to by-pass the Security Council and the U.S. veto and take its statehood request directly to the General Assembly, where approval requires a two-thirds majority vote –129 out of 193 member countries.

    According to Palestinian officials, 122 countries have already recognized Palestine, but they hope to gain the support of up to 150.

    If the General Assembly approves the request, it would grant only limited U.N. recognition as a non-member observer state – so Palestinians would not have the right to vote.

    However, it would allow the Palestinians to join dozens of U.N. bodies and conventions, including the International Criminal Court. That would give Palestinians the opportunity to file charges against Israel for alleged violations of international law – such as the continued settlement building.

    ‘A different mechanism’
    The Palestinians have long aspired to establish an independent, sovereign state within the 1967 borders.

    However, frustration from decades of on-and-off peace talks that have failed to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has led the Palestinians, represented by the Palestinian Authority, to pursue new strategies.

    Shtayyeh pointed out that it has been 18 years since the Oslo Accords, which were supposed to set the stage for a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Unfortunately, almost two decades later, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is entrenched and Israel’s occupation has turned into de facto annexation,” he said.

    “All that we are looking for is a new mechanism to end the conflict.  We are not going into violence, we are not going into armed struggle, we are not taking any unilateral steps. We are going to a multilateral forum that has 193 countries and we are asking this international community to speak loudly for a two state solution,” said Shtayyeh.

    He added that the move isn’t meant as a challenge to America.

    “We are saying to Washington and to the international community these peace talks have been ongoing for 20 years and they have not achieved their goal,” said Shtayyeh. “The goal is the same; we just simply need a different approach, a different mechanism.”

    The Palestinians also argue that their U.N. plan fits with the deadline set by the Middle East Peace Quartet –  the E.U., U.S., Russia and U.N. – to reach a two-state solution by September 2011.

    “Even President Obama was hoping to see Palestine admitted to the United Nations in his speech last September to the General Assembly, so everybody wants this to happen,” said Shtayyeh.

    Strong opposition from Israel
    Israel has made it clear that if the Palestinian request is passed, it will not change anything on the ground. The checkpoints, separation wall and settlements will still all be there. The creation of a Palestinian state on the basis of 1967 borders is something, they say, no Israeli government will accept because it threatens Israel’s security.

    However, the Israelis view this step as far from being a meaningless gesture. They worry about the legality of their occupation and the settlements in the West Bank being put to the judgment of the International Criminal Court. In theory, it might lead to Israeli officials being dragged repeatedly before the International Criminal Court at the Hague – something they obviously don’t want.

    The Israeli government, like the U.S., believes U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state will set back the peace process. Peace, they insist, can only be achieved through talks.

    Israel and the U.S. have urged the Palestinians to reconsider going to the U.N., warning of dire consequences.

    Some Israeli right wing officials have called for the suspensions of the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, the cancellation of all previous agreements and the annexation of territory containing settlement blocs in the West Bank to the state of Israel.

    The United States has threatened to stop all financial aid to the Palestinian Authority if they proceed with plans to ask the U.N. for recognition of an independent state.

    Realizing what’s at stake, the Palestinians have stated that they still intend to submit an application for recognition of Palestinian statehood to the Security Council as a first step.