With a headline that reminded me of the old Republican 1950s smear–“Who lost China“–Maariv’s headline today (h/t Didi Remez) says:
Fear in Jerusalem: We Lost Gabon
Apparently, Gabon’s strong man refused two offers by Bibi to meet him during the last GA meetings in New York. The African leader was miffed when he heard all the goodies Bibi had offered Nigeria for their No vote; and he saw how little Israel was offering his country.
The Maariv article does its own head count and finds that the PA is still one short of the nine votes it needs for approval. But it’s counting Bosnia in the No category. While I’m no expert on this, I think it makes no sense for a country that is one-third Muslim to vote against Palestine. An abstention would be more likely. But even with an abstention, the PA still needs those nine. Failing that, the U.S. will breathe a sigh of relief, since it won’t have to veto the resolution, thereby betraying the utter hypocrisy of our professed policy supporting the creation of a Palestinian state.
I also think it’s tremendously symbolic that the Security Council has moved the date for consideration of the PA proposal to November 29th. Zionist history buffs will recall this as the momentous date in 1947 when the UN voted to approve Israeli statehood. It has been 64 years since the international body recognized Israel. It’s about time they recognized Palestine as well. 64 years is long enough.
What escapes me is the difference between the US strong arming enough nations into not voting for Palestinian statehood and the US casting its veto. Either way the US prevents the resolution from passing and thus the Obama administration is fully entitled to the good and bad that flows from its foolish actions.