THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Sep 22, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Obama vows to derail Palestinian bid

UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Obama declared Wednesday that there could be no shortcut to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as he sought to head off a United Nations showdown over Palestinian statehood that’s becoming a thorny diplomatic problem for his administration.


“Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations – if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now,” the president told the U.N. General Assembly. “Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side … Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians – not us – who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them.”


Obama forcefully defended his opposition to the Palestinians’ plan to seek statehood recognition from the U.N. Security Council, though without directly calling on the Palestinians to drop the bid, or offering a clear path forward in its place. With the limits of U.S. influence on the moribund peace process never more clear, Obama had no new demands for the Israelis, either, beyond repeating his position that both sides deserved their own state and security and should return to the negotiating table to achieve it.


Behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats were working furiously to get Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to moderate his plans, but it was not clear they would be successful.


“Peace depends upon compromise among peoples who must live together long after our speeches are over, and our votes have been counted,” Obama said. “That is the path to a Palestinian state.”
The push by the Palestinians threatens to isolate Israel even further, and separate the U.S. from allies in the Arab world who support the Palestinian statehood resolution.


For Obama, it would be another blow to his tattered hopes of brokering a Middle East peace. And it would amount to a political setback at home, where Republican opponents say Obama hasn’t sufficiently supported Israel, and accuse him of mishandling diplomacy in the Middle East.After the speech, which was friendly to Israel’s position, Obama went into a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. There, he affirmed the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security. Later in the day, Obama met with Abbas, where he was expected to privately ask him to essentially drop the move for statehood recognition.


Obama’s remarks on Israel and the Palestinians came in a speech that also swept up the convulsions of what Obama called “a remarkable year.” He talked about the fall of Moammar Gadhafi’s dictatorship in Libya, the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, and the emergence of South Sudan as the world’s newest nation.


“The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open,” Obama said. “Dictators are on notice.”
Earlier, in his opening address to the 193 U.N. member states, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that the world is in “crisis,” urging global leaders to support Mideast and North African nations in their quest for democracy and singling out Syria for “special concern,” accusing President Bashar Assad’s government of reneging on promises to reform after six months of violence as government forces continue to crack down on the popular uprising.


Ban said this year’s dramatic events in the Mideast and North Africa has “inspired us.”
“Let us help to make the Arab Spring a true season of hope for all,” the secretary-general said.
But the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians looked as intractable as ever.


Ban said the Palestinians deserve a state, Israel needs security and the stalemate over reviving negotiations must be broken. He pledged the U.N.’s “unrelenting efforts to help achieve that peace through a negotiated settlement.”
Speaking shortly after Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the United Nations to admit Palestine as a non-member state, upgrading its status as simple observer but opposing a Palestinian bid for full membership.


Aiming to avoid a showdown, Sarkozy sought a middle road between the Palestinian plan to ask the U.N. Security Council to admit Palestine as a full state and the U.S. determination to block the effort with a veto, which he warned would be dangerous, proposing a one-year timetable for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace accord, with talks set to resume in about one month.


“Let us cease our endless debates on the parameters and let us begin negotiations and adopt a precise and ambitious timetable,” Sarkozy told the leaders and officials gathered at the U.N.


“Sixty years without moving 1 centimeter forward, doesn’t that suggest that we should change the method and the scheduling here?”
“Let’s have one month to resume discussions, six months to find agreement on borders and security, one year to reach a definitive agreement,” he said.


A senior European Union official said the proposal laid out by Sarkozy matched one by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton during a meeting with EU foreign ministers Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.


In an appearance with Netanyahu before their private meeting, Obama reiterated his call for direct peace talks as the only solution to the conflict, saying “actions in the United Nations will mean neither statehood or self-determination for the Palestinians.”


By Obama’s side, Netanyahu condemned the Palestinian move, calling it a “shortcut” that “will not succeed.”
“I think the Palestinians want to achieve a state in the international community,” Netanyahu said, “but they’re not prepared yet to give peace to Israel in return.”


Netanyahu praised Obama’s stance on Israel, an endorsement that could help the U.S. president fend off criticism at home from Republicans.


“I think that standing your ground, taking this position of principle – which is also I think the right position to achieve peace – I think this is a badge of honor. And I want to thank you for wearing that badge of honor,” Netanyahu said.


Obama was welcomed to the U.N. hall with polite applause from the delegations gathered for his address. There was little response from the audience throughout his speech, even on the hot-button issue of Middle East peace.
Facing a partisan struggle over deficits and jobs at home, Obama spoke to problems in the world economy, and made a brief plug for his new plans to create jobs, already running into Republican opposition on Capitol Hill.


“We must take urgent and coordinated action once more,” he said. “In a global economy, nations will rise, or fall, together.”
But Obama returned repeatedly to one theme, “Peace is hard,” he said several times. “Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible.”



 
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