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| Daily News Brief November 30, 2012 |
Top of the Agenda: Palestinians Win Upgraded UN Status
The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly (Haaretz)
on Thursday to upgrade the Palestinian Authority's observer status to
"non-member state" from "entity" in the face of opposition from the
United States and Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deemed
the vote "unfortunate and counterproductive," while Israel's Ambassador
to the UN affirmed that peace could only be achieved through bilateral
negotiations. UN envoys said Israel may not retaliate harshly if
Palestinians do not seek to join the International Criminal Court (Reuters),
where they could accuse Israel of war crimes—a route Palestinian
Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki warned could be taken if Israel
continued to build illegal settlements.
Analysis
"The most intriguing result of Thursday's vote, perhaps, will be the effect on the long-delayed reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas.
The latter has been remarkably positive about Abbas' bid, even holding a
public rally today in Gaza to show support—a stark contrast to last
year, when Hamas officials largely kept quiet and discouraged any public
demonstrations," writes Gregg Carlstrom for Al Jazeera.
"The
danger for the Israelis is that Abbas will feel impelled to pursue the
legal route to regain political credibility. He is desperately trying to
recover political face,
after his marginalisation during the Gaza conflict at the expense of
Hamas. Hamas themselves initially opposed the UN bid, but seem to have
tempered their opposition today, in the face of widespread celebrations
in the West Bank," writes Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times.
"Of
course, if the Palestinians enter the legal battlefield, they, too,
risk being accused and prosecuted in the venues where they'd try to
target Israelis. There is no guarantee
for either side that the ICC prosecutor would follow through on
charges. The ICC has procedural obstacles that could head off any
prosecution there," writes Joseph Schuman for Reuters.
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