Commenting on the remarks of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice which called the vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive to the path toward peace," the MPAC said that her speech made two things clear: The United States cannot serve as an unbiased broker in Israeli-Palestinian affairs; and the U.S. is isolating itself further from the international community on the Palestinian issue.
While
the vote will not change the quality of life or legal status for the average
Palestinian today, this historic and necessary vote is a powerful symbol of the
international community's support for Palestinian human rights,
self-determination and freedom from occupation, MPAC concluded.
Better bargaining position for Palestinians
Palestinian leaders believe that improving their status at the United Nations will give them better bargaining power against Israel, which they say has been stalling on negotiations while expanding settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.
The USA Today quoted Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Palestine Center, a pro-Palestinian think-tank in Washington, as saying that the Palestinian effort is a rejection of US-mediated peace talks. They're meant to create leverage for Palestinians to impose costs on the Israelis for the occupation, Munayyer said.
"This is an alternative strategy to seek membership in other international forums after Obama failed to get Israel to agree to a settlement freeze" in 2010, Munayyer added.
The Palestinians have different strategies for making the occupation costly for Israel, Munayyer said. "Unless Israel has costs related to the occupation, it's not going to change," he concluded.
The U.N. vote should be "a springboard" to a process that results in better relations between Ramallah and Washington, Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, told the USA Today.
The American Task Force advocates a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Better Palestinian-US relations would be the first step to getting back to negotiations with Israel, Ibish said adding he believes many European countries that Israel and the USA thought would abstain or oppose the measure decided to vote in favor or abstain because Palestinian leaders signaled "they can be restrained in using those options."
According the
Associated Press real independence remains an elusive dream until the
Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the Israelis. "Israel still controls
the West Bank, east Jerusalem and access to Gaza. The Palestinians also face enormous
limitations. They don't control their borders, airspace or trade, they have
separate and competing governments in Gaza and the West Bank and they have no
unified army or police." The Palestinians now can gain access to U.N. agencies
and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court,
which could become a springboard for going after Israel for alleged war crimes
or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land.
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