6:39 pm Nov. 29, 20122
The United Nations voted to grant Palestine nonmember observer status this afternoon, over the objections of American diplomats, a decision that drew an unequivoal reaction from New York's elected officials.
"Today's political theater at the United Nations is a harmful distraction from achieving true peace and stability between Israel and Palestine," said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a statement shortly after the vote.
The United States previously blocked a vote by the U.N. to recognize Palestinian statehood, but was unable to block the vote for nonmember status, which could accord Palestine access to new legal channels for challenging Israel in court.
Gillibrand urged the U.N.'s secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, "to do everything in his power to block the Palestinians from access to the International Criminal Court.”
Rep. Eliot Engel said the vote "places the cart before the horse and eliminates the incentives for the Palestinians to engage in any type of dialogue with Israel" and that the international community had its approach to Palestine "backwards."
"Hamas shoots thousands of rockets at Israel and gets visits and legitimization from the international community," Engel said in a statement. "The Palestinian Authority is unwilling to engage in dialogue to reach a compromise with Israel and becomes a non-member observer state. Rewarding these actions is like putting the car in reverse and stepping on the gas."
Most of the statements called for re-starting bilateral negotiations between the two countries, as a necessary step toward peace.
"Only direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations can result in a viable two-state solution – with an independent Palestinian state established with adequate and agreed upon security guarantees for Israel," said Rep. Jerry Nadler in his statement. "I truly hope that we can soon return to good faith, bilateral negotiations."
"to do everything in his power to block the Palestinians from access to the International Criminal Court.”
because everyone know that USA supported Israel in many genocides done to the Palestinians. they don't want the world to know what happened there... just to cover it up as they did long time before with the native Americans...
The article states that the American politicial actors say "re-starting bilateral negotiations between the two countries" which implies statehood status for Palestine. Which is it?
These political actors -- elected officials -- know that negotiations can only occur between equals. The unequal status between the PA and the State of Israel makes true negotiations impossible. So let's stop the posturing and pandering. Now that the UN has conferred non-member observer state status (which is an inane as calling the US colony Puerto Rico, a "free associated state") on Palestine, Israel should take the initiative and take the PA and the Hamas government in Gaza to the ICC. Israel has as great a case, if not greater, since they have been victims of unprovoked rocket attacks and the breaking of numerous cease-fire agreements. But they won't because that means recognizing the PA as a legitimate "state." I don't doubt that a true review of the Talmud would provide appropriate advice in moving forward from the current stalemate..