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Palestine's UN Bid: Between History and Hot Air

(Reuters) Tom Perry - The Palestinians will likely emerge from September's General Assembly meeting with a UN status upgrade that will give them access to dozens of UN agencies. But talk in Israel of a looming "diplomatic tsunami" has subsided. Some argue that unless it is part of a deep rethink of Palestinian strategy, the upgrade will have little more than symbolic value and bring Palestinians no closer to independence. "It's a first step, but without further steps it is politically meaningless," said George Giacaman, a political scientist at Birzeit University in the West Bank. When discussing September, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's aides say he says: "Unpleasant, but not terrible." Israel seems more wary about the potential for September to trigger Palestinian protests, since the Palestinian leadership has called for mass protests in support of the bid.
2011-08-05 00:00:00
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