(Image Source: Mind the Gap)

 

BY MIKKEL NOEL LANZKY

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

Recognition of a Palestinian state by the international community. That is the goal of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, as he comes to New York for the UN General Assembly, which begins Tuesday. Fox News reports:

“They certainly have enough votes inside the UN General Assembly for the Palestinians to have their own state. The key though, the lynch-pin, is of course the UN Security Council, and that’s where the U.S. has a veto that it has promised to use to prevent the Palestinians from getting full recognition.”

Abbas says he sees a direct bid for statehood at the UN as the only way forward after nearly twenty years of fruitless peace talks.

CNN National Security Contributor and member of the CIA External Advisory Committee Fran Townsend says the U.S. is looking for a middle-of-the-road solution to avoid a vote that would manifest the unspoken disagreements within the international community.

“What the U.S. would like to see is renewed negotiations between Israel and Palestine bilaterally to resolve the remaining issues before such a vote proceeds.”

Assessments vary on how wise the move is. Roula Khalaf, Middle East editor with the Financial Times, writes:

“A risky strategy no doubt – everyone had advised him against a move that is certain to provoke a US veto: he appears to have been struck by the winds of change blowing through the Middle East. He knows that the upheaval requires bold moves if it is not to leave the beleaguered Palestinian Authority irrelevant....”

In a blog on CNN’s Global Public Square, Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah calls the bid:

“A formal funeral for the two-state solution” and adds it’s...

“...at least in theory, supposed to circumvent the failed peace process. But in two crucial respects, the ill-conceived gambit actually makes things worse, amplifying the flaws of the process it seeks to replace. First, it excludes the Palestinian people from the decision-making process. And second, it entirely disconnects the discourse about statehood from reality.”

Some observers believe Abbas is doing the right thing, among them Bradley Burston, Senior Editor at the English version of Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“It conveys the concept of Palestine as a nation, living alongside Israel as a member of the community of nations, acknowledging the primacy of the UN as a forum for state-to-state airing of disputes.”

Tony Karon, blogging for Time Magazine, believes the Palestinian move might prove “a damp squib” that won’t change the status quo for the foreseeable future:

“Abbas will go back to his people and tell them he won a moral victory; [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu will tell Israelis that he, in fact, was the moral victor, and reality on the ground in the West Bank will remain entirely unchanged.”

You're watching multisource global video news analysis from Newsy.