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Henry Siegman examines the Palestinian bid for UN recognition more closely:
Obama’s surrender to domestic political expediency in a presidential election campaign year has offered new hope for a change in direction away from the American-sponsored peace process. That peace process has been one of the great frauds of recent diplomatic history, having served as a cover for Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank. It has by now succeeded in establishing some 600,000 Israelis in former Palestinian areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.(Image: "US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a bilateral meeting at the United Nations, September 21, 2011." Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images, via NYRB and Foreign Policy)
The international community has until now abided the US-led peace process out of the belief that precisely because of America’s one-sided support for Israel, it has unique leverage to persuade the Israeli government to accept a fair resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians. Obama’s speech at the UN has finally shattered that expectation. No one who was in that audience any longer believes that America is the indispensable party for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Indeed, it has become painfully clear that America is “uniquely” obstructing the process, using its influence in Western Europe and elsewhere to shield Israel from international pressures that might change its rejectionist stance.