At the very least, Palestine will very, very likely get non-member observer state status at the UN out of this, which is a blow to the Israeli supremacists who still dream of a Greater Israel devoid of all Palestinians. Despite all their duplicitous rhetoric that Abbas' submission for Palestinian UN membership is a horribly heretical and self-destructive thing to do, Israeli officials and their Washington poodles are scared to death of any form of UN status for Palestine, because they would no longer be able to pummel Palestinians in some dark corner without triggering at least minimal United Nations mechanisms for protecting even quasi-member states. And with the rise of the Arab Spring and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ten times as much respect in the Middle East as Obama or any American, gone too are the days when Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia, at the very least in the Middle East and North Africa, are going to look the other way while Israel is working over the Palestinians in the back-alleys of Gaza and the West Bank. As the dictators and autocrats continue to fall, the Good Old Boy network that collaborated with Israel in repressing the Palestinians is going to continue to crumble away.
Get used to saying, singing and shouting, "State of Palestine, Palestine!" It is only a matter of time. Cynics and naysayers, get out of the way of the coming State of Palestine.
For some pertinent news on all this, here is this excerpt with photo from al Jazeera, followed by the videos of Abbas' speech before the UN General Assembly today, Friday September 23, 2011.
The Palestine 194 campaign says it has the support of 125 countries - more than a majority of world states [EPA]
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has handed over a historic request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member.The Palestinian leader won huge applause and a standing ovation on Friday as he entered the hall just after submitting the membership request.
"I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favour of our full membership," Abbas told the UN General Assembly.
"I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership in the United Nations and our admission as an independent state," Abbas said.
In his address, Abbas said he was ready to return to negotiations based on the 1967 borders, saying he did not want to isolate or delegitimise Israel.
"Here I declare that the Palestine Liberation Organisation is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of reference ... and a complete cessation of settlement activities," he told the UN General Assembly.
But he maintained previous peace talks were "smashed against the rocks of the positions of the Israeli government, which quickly dashed the hopes raised by the launch of negotiations last September".
Palestinians celebrate
Palestinians across the West Bank celebrated the formal submission of their bid to become a United Nations member state, despite opposition from the United States and Israel.
In city centres, giant television screens were set up so residents could watch Abbas deliver a historic address to the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly.
In Ramallah, the political capital of the West Bank, many cars were flying the Palestinian flag. Posters of Abbas and his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, festooned in the streets, as the crowd swelled to the largest seen in Ramallah since Arafat's funeral in 2004.
"I've heard a chant tonight that I've never heard before," Al Jazeera's Cal Perry, reporting from Ramallah, said. "People are chanting for Mahmoud Abbas. His speech was really playing to the next generation."
"Tonight we have seen spontaneous shows of support for Abbas, who has sometimes seen cascading public support."
Near the Muqataa, Abbas's presidential headquarters, flags of the more than 125 nations that have recognised a Palestinian state flew in a circle around a Palestinian flag. (FOR THE FULL ARTICLE, CLICK HERE)
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