Palestinian Statehood/UN

[Toedancer]

AFP's live report with both Bibi/Abbas statements in speeches.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jWLaTaEKuLyS5sepg7fRKuiZhK8A?docId=CNG.3d47f50995407e1ef4979c0137f4ea6b.71


CBC with livestream
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/09/23/palestinian-un-statehood-bid.html


Foreign Policy-Bill Clinton "Bibi killed the Peace Process"
Sheesh, wonder what Hilary thinks of that?


http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/22/bill_clinton_netanyahu_killed_the_peace_process

[Antonia]

 

[Toedancer]

Quartet (which consists of US/Russia/EU/UN) calls for peace talks.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hEYri6FnK1CQG7zbDA515dV2U-Jw?docId=CNG.73bb9264f716edd03273a457350cf9e0.751


Palestinian negotiator said - "We are ready to assume our responsibilities according to the road map and international law, but Israel needs to assume its own and end settlement activity" in the occupied West Bank, he added.
Then immed. after Bibi said - "I could put preconditions on [Abbas]," Netanyahu added, "I could tell him to dismantle one of the refugee camps, just one."

   The west is scrambling now.

[Antonia]

Is Netanyahu the New Caligula?

His fight is to change history: to show the right was right, the Holy Land could be kept whole as the home of the Jewish people, and that to this end all means, including violence in every form, were and remain justified.

Netanyahu occasionally allows his office to brief off-the-record against Lieberman, but on the whole he appears helpless when dealing with him. So he escapes abroad, preferably into the arms of the U.S. neo-cons, to whom he sold his soul many years ago – which is the third point. Netanyahu may be the prime minister of Israel, but his political masters sit in Washington D.C., utilizing him in their own battles with Obama and the Democrats. Whether inviting him to address Congress while Obama was out of the U.S., or driving a U.S. veto on the Palestinian vote, Republicans are happy to use Netanyahu in order to shame the current administration. The immense strategic cost this incurs to the U.S. does not seem to interest them in the least.

[Holly Stick]

Juan Cole on the UNESCO vote to recognize Palestine:

...Since a law passed by Congress in the 1990s forbids the US from funding UN bodies that recognize Palestine, the Obama administration has no choice but to withdraw the $80 million a year it gives UNESCO, which is a fifth of the agency’s budget. But what this step really means is that the US loses influence over UNESCO, and indeed, it might well lose its membership in the organization. UNESCO may have to close some offices and lose employees. Or someone else, such as Saudi Arabia or China, might pick up the $80 million, gaining influence over UNESCO at US expense.

If the move becomes common, the US could end up further and further isolated and helpless...

http://www.juancole.com/2011/11/unesco-palestine-vote-isolates-us-further.html

[Toedancer]

So mature U.S.A. Now the surly Israeli state has decided to halt the tax transfer payments it collects to the P.A., as well as expedite settlement construction. 


http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-to-expedite-settlement-construction-in-response-to-palestinian-unesco-membership-1.393191

"All of the mentioned areas are ones that would remain in Israeli control under any future peace agreement," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
The eight senior ministers also decided to suspend the transfer of tax money which Israel has collected for the Palestinian Authority in October. The money, which amounts to more than NIS 300 million, was supposed to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority before the Eid al-Adha holiday, when the money was to be used to pay the salaries of policemen and clerks of the Palestinian Authority.

Lost the plot, need  pediatric psych evals. Is another operation cast lead far off?


Palestine seeks to join 16 other UN agencies.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/with-unesco-membership-granted-palestinians-seek-to-join-16-more-un-agencies-1.393134
Israel is meeting to mull that over.

[Antonia]

Meanwhile, as Pogge notes, Canada is on the bandwagon ...

[Toedancer]

Canada can continue to fund unesco because no excuse (as pogge notes), also Harper isn't facing re-election, Obama is and his polls suck. Oh wait...this is delicious. AP reporter has had it!


http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/you-lost-reporters-at-state-say-unesco-vote-isolates-u-s-from-world-opinion-and-possibly-from-intellectual-property-enforcement.html

When the U.S. deals itself out of UNESCO, the interests of American multinational corps are hurt. As Lee comments, "I used to think that this government, my government, had some intellect itself, but this just seems ridiculous."

The repercussions are going to be very mighty from the multinationals. AP's Matt Lee to the State Dept.'s spokesthingy - "You Lost"  ROTF!