Suddenly, Obama Is A Big Fan Of Flags--The Palestinian One

It seems ironic that Obama, whose feelings about the US flag have garnered criticism both during his campaign and since, should go out of his way to allow the Palestinian to be flown.

The Obama administration seems to think that the US has granted the PA office in Washington, DC a major upgrade in status:

The US State Department announced that the diplomatic recognition of the Palestinian Authority in the US will be upgraded to the status of “delegation general” Israel Radio reported Friday.


This will allow the Palestinian envoys in Washington to display the Palestinian flag and provide social benefits for their employees.

Palestinian representative to the US in Washington Maen Areikat said that the step equates Palestinian diplomatic status in the US to that of Canada and many other countries in western Europe.

Officials in Jerusalem have not responded officially to the US decision. Senior officials at the Prime Minister’s Office said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was aware of the decision in advance and that the move was apparently intended to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The sad fact is that the latter move by the Obama administration completely ignores the facts and attempts to create new facts which just have no basis in reality. For example, in their rush to throw Abbas a bone, they have confused the PLO with the PA.

Jennifer Rubin relays the following email:

The news stories that say the United States has upgraded the Palestinian Authority office in Washington are wrong, for there is no PA office. There is a PLO office, one that requires a waiver twice each year to exist because of the PLO’s past links to terrorism. The PLO is, according to the United Nations, the “sole legitimate voice of the Palestinian people,” but everyone knows that’s false; the PLO represents the ghost of Yasser Arafat, plus a whole bunch of his cronies. It would be far better to end the farce of having a PLO office — after all, who elected them? — and to try to establish a PA office, for any current and future Palestinian political development will take place through the PA.

Talk about mixed messages.

This nonsense with the flags is as meaningless as the proximity talks that are supposed to lead to peace between Israel and the PA without having to actually talk to each other.

Will this measure really bolster Abbas or just demonstrate to the Arab world how needy he is.

Technorati Tag: Palestinian Mission and Flags.