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Palestinians Protest U.S. Peace Plan at UN, But World Has Moved On

(Christian Science Monitor) Howard LaFranchi - PA President Mahmoud Abbas sought a UN Security Council resolution demonstrating global rejection of the U.S. peace plan, but things did not go as he had hoped. Once it became clear that the resolution was garnering only mixed support, it was delayed indefinitely. "It's sad for the Palestinians, but they just aren't the do-or-die issue for countries that they once were," says Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of U.S. foreign policy at New York University's Center for Global Affairs. "Clearly this issue has become kind of a nuisance for many countries, particularly the Gulf states that once stood solidly behind them. It's no longer central to their diplomacy or to their pursuit of national interests." Other priorities, from tending to broad strategic relationships (with the U.S. and even Israel) to confronting an expansive Iran, have supplanted the Palestinian issue, he says. James Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, says many countries in the region look at the Syrian civil war, with its millions of refugees; the war in Yemen; upheaval in Libya; the destabilizing presence of the Islamic State - and the result has been a weakening fervor for the Palestinian cause. "The impact of all these other conflicts is that the Palestinians' plight is not perceived to be as bad as it used to be," he says.
2020-02-13 00:00:00
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