President Emeritus Abbas Off To UN Again In Search Of A State

IMRA posted from the August 3 edition of the Saudi Gazette a piece entitled:"UN bid or US aid? Tough option for Palestinians"

An internal document says Palestinians must prepare for possible harsh reactions by the US and Israel if they go ahead with plans to seek UN recognition of “Palestine” as a non-member observer state in the General Assembly.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, backed by the Arab League, is ready to take this step but hasn’t decided on when. A senior Palestinian official says Abbas leans toward waiting until after the US presidential election, in line with a US request. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The internal Palestinian document, prepared by the PLO’s Negotiations Support Unit and obtained by The Associated Press Thursday, laid out the pros and cons of seeking UN recognition.

On the downside, both Israel and the US have a whole arsenal of punitive measures at their disposal, the document said. The US could close the PLO mission in Washington, suspend millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians or withhold contributions to any UN agency the Palestinians try to join, the document said.

Possible Israel reactions could range from canceling interim peace deals, annexing parts of the West Bank or increasing restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, the document said.

Naturally, not listed among the downsides is the oddity of having Abbas himself make this appeal to the UN, considering the fact that Abbas's term ended back in January, 2009.

Then again, since the UN does not care that Abbas no longer represents the Palestinian Arabs or their interests, there is surely no reason for the Arab world to concern itself about such issues.

A secondary issue that is of no practical interest to the UN is the fact that the myth of the Palestinian state is underscored by the fact it is unable to sustain either itself, or the Arabs who live there, financially.  The fact the World Bank announced the "Palestinian State" is unsustainable is of no consequence to the UN.

After all, why should it be.

Last year in October, UNESCO cheated on its own rules when it admitted "Palestine" as a member of UNESCO with a vote of 107-14 out of 173. According to UNESCO's own rules, no member is supposed to be admitted into UNESCO if it falls short of 2/3 of the vote. But the vote to admit "Palestine" did in fact amount to less than 2/3 and UNESCO went ahead and admitted them anyway.

The UN's inability to stick to its own standards is hardly reassuring--the possibility of the UN sticking to any other kind of standard is already beyond hope.

Sometimes its hard to figure out which is more corrupt and incompetent: the UN or the Palestinian Authority.

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