Comment and Opinion
The Telegraph: The Palestinians’ UN ploy is just the latest stalling tactic, by Ambassador Daniel Taub
“Frustration at the failure to reach a negotiated solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict creates an understandable thirst for alternative approaches. One such approach is resurfacing at the moment: the Palestinian initiative to achieve unilateral recognition at the United Nations. In yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, the former Palestinian foreign minister, Nabeel Shaath, demanded that “Britain atone for its sins” and support this move. This would be a serious setback for peace.
Negotiations, to be sure, have not yet resulted in a final agreement. But they have actually produced significant results. In fact, the very institutions and bodies that the Palestinians point to as the basis of their claim to statehood in the UN are themselves the result of face-to-face negotiations between the two sides. Decades of UN General Assembly resolutions, by contrast, have produced nothing. Indeed, more often the UN has driven the two sides apart.”