Netanyahu Playing With Fire In Bid To Win EU Backing Against Palestinian State

[Purveyor]

By Akiva Eldar

After the Palestinian Authority leadership announced its (final? ) decision on Sunday to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state in the June 1967 borders, it appears United States President Barack Obama will have to grapple with a challenging dilemma. The formulation of the resolution that is emerging from Ramallah will be a "cut and paste" job of lines from the president's speech on May 19, in which he presented the formula of the 1967 lines with mutually agreed border adjustments. The White House will have to decide whether to order U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to vote for President Obama and administer a slap to 2012 presidential candidate Obama, or to vote against the resolution and slap the president.

The last time the Palestinians did this maneuver - the resolution condemning the settlements in February - the candidate had the upper hand. Administration spokesmen explained the contradiction by saying they do not, of course, support the settlements but they are opposed to dragging the issue into the UN arena.

However, at the European Commission offices in Brussels, the impression emerged that after the drubbing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him in Congress, Obama is not eager to use the right to veto again. It appears to them it isn't certain that the sight of the great power snuggling up with Israel in the General Assembly, along with the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, will do wonders for candidate Obama. Therefore, the Americans have been investing special effort in enlisting key European countries, first and foremost Germany - the weak link in initiatives depicted as being against the Jewish state - along with Britain and France, the permanent European members of the Security Council. Each has its own interests, which do not necessarily have to do with their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or with fine points in the area of international law.

However, Israel's Foreign Ministry is not relinquishing the pleasure of butting the Palestinians and proving that Israel is the victim in this story as well. An official document of the Israeli Mission to the European Union, under the heading "Premature Recognition of a Palestinian State," is a masterpiece of selective use of agreements and statements. The authors of the document have evinced amazing skill at acrobatics between the lines of a number of UN resolutions concerning the conflict. Not to Israel's benefit, the document opens a series of explosive Pandora's boxes.

MORE...

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/netanyahu-playing-with-fire-in-bid-to-win-eu-backing-against-palestinian-state-1.369966