Exposing U.S. Hypocrisy

September 23, 2011 01:36 AM
By Daily Star Editorial
Courtesy Of "The Daily Star"

The talking will stop Friday, the voting will start Monday, the result is already known. Although Palestine’s bid for statehood will fail at the United Nations Security Council, this week has been a successful one for the man who brought it there.

Mahmoud Abbas, at 76, has spent the majority of his life seeking an equitable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. As one of the main players in the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian leader has seen more than two decades of aborted and ultimately futile negotiations, and more than enough to see their ineffectiveness.

Such an experience has not stopped President Barack Obama chirping on about the need for direct talks and using his country’s Security Council veto. If Abbas’ aim in peace talks was for a fair outcome, then Obama’s insistence on repeating failed processes can only be predicated on a diverging definition of equality.

In bringing the issue of statehood to the U.N., the Palestinian leader may have drawn the ire of a select group of extremely powerful men, but for all but the least impartial observer, the bid appears precisely as it is: an inevitable product of consistent and profound unevenness in negotiations.

Abbas’ bid for statehood has demonstrated that there is an alternative to repetitive and unfruitful direct talks. 

It is worth remembering that internationally ordained statehood would only serve to put Palestinian officials on an equal footing to their Israeli counterparts.

It is fair to point out that, as head of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas is mandated to reflect his people’s will, and any poll one cares to reference shows overwhelming support for statehood among Palestinians.
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But the man’s refusal to be cowed by opposition from potent nations shows that he has learned from previous missteps. In statements and private talks this week, Abbas has demonstrated a shrewdness that will serve Palestine as well as any other approach. By anticipating the U.S. knee-jerk refusal he has cleaved a wider isolation between Washington and the majority of world administrations and shown in the starkest possible way U.S. hypocrisy over a two-state goal.

Irrespective of Monday’s outcome, Abbas will head to the General Assembly, where he has already secured the support of the necessary two-thirds majority.

Rejection from the Security Council is not therefore the death knell of the statehood bid, but it might signal the last rites of American and Israel opposition to a Palestine formed without their approval.




Members Of PLO Delegation In Washington Say U.S. President's Speech Was 'Double Standard' When He Praised The Arab Spring But Did Not Express Support For Palestinian State.

By Natasha Mozgovaya and Reuters
Published 19:52 21.09.11
Latest update 19:52 21.09.11
Courtesy Of "Haaretz Newspaper"

A senior Palestinian official voiced disappointment at U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, saying he had hoped for an expression of support for Palestinian freedom.

Obama urged Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch direct peace talks as he made a last-ditch attempt to avert a UN crisis over Palestinian statehood and pull his Middle East policy back from the brink of diplomatic disaster.

He also touched on the "Arab Spring" uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East, remarking how "change had come to Egypt and to the Arab World."

Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), told Reuters there was "a gap between praising the struggle of Arab peoples for the sake of freedom and between an abstract call for negotiations between us and the Israelis."


"We expected to hear that the freedom of the Palestinian people was key for the Arab Spring," he said. "Freedom should cover the [whole] region."

Moreover, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the PLO delegation in Washington, told Haaretz that she was very disappointed with Obama's speech.

"Listening to [Obama], you would think it was the Palestinians who occupy Israel," she told Haaretz.

"He presented a double standard when he disassociated the Arabs' fight for their freedom in the region from the Palestinian freedom fighters, who deal with the occupation for 63 years… what we heard is precisely why we are going to the UN."

Abbas has vowed to submit to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon an application for full UN membership for Palestinian statehood when he addresses the General Assembly session in New York on Friday despite U.S. and Israeli opposition.

Israel and the United States oppose the idea of a Palestinian UN push, which Israel says is aimed at delegitimizing it. The Palestinians say it will enable direct peace talks to talk place between two equal, sovereign states.

"We are here at the United Nations to call for an active international intervention, including by America, to lay down the foundations for serious negotiations and foremost the recognition of a Palestinian state," Abed Rabbo said.

"It is time that the policies of slipping away (from peace commitments), and continued annexation (of Palestinian land) be stopped," he said.