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Poisoned Atmosphere in Mid-East Peace Efforts

(BBC News) Paul Danahar - There is a lot of diplomatic activity at the moment to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to seek statehood in the autumn. It's likely that more than two-thirds of the UN General Assembly will recognize a Palestinian state if it goes to a vote. But a state cannot get actual membership of the UN unless it is approved by the Security Council, and the Americans will veto that. The Israelis are hoping to at least get the proposal rejected by a majority of the Security Council. They want - to translate a common Hebrew phrase - to "lose with dignity." Diplomats say the key voters are Germany, France and the UK. Germany has said no to recognition; France is "on the fence but trending positively" to supporting recognition; the UK is undecided. President Obama's apparently personal decision, late in the day, to include in his May speech a reference to a solution based on the 1967 borders infuriated the Israelis. "We felt like it was an ambush," an Israeli cabinet minister told me. "What seems clear at the moment is that America's most important ally doesn't have a voice in the inner circle. We realized, not for the first time, those we speak with like Dennis Ross, Dan Shapiro, [George] Mitchell...and so forth are not in the inner circle. The inner circle is very different, different agenda with different understandings....The gaps are so wide - not just between us and the president but between the president and his staff."
2011-06-24 00:00:00
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