Exclusive: Obama to back Palestinian state at Security Council – payback for Israel’s right-wing cabinet
Exclusive: Obama to back Palestinian state at Security Council – payback for Israel’s right-wing cabinet, DEBKAfile, May 6, 2015
Barack Obama plans to punish Israel again
DEBKAfile reports exclusively from Washington: US President Barack Obama did not wait for Binyamin Netanyahu to finish building his new government coalition by its deadline at midnight Wednesday, May 6, before going into action to pay him back for forming a right-wing cabinet minus any moderate figure for resuming negotiations with the Palestinians.
Banking on Netanyahu’s assertion while campaigning for re-election that there would be no Palestinian state during his term in office, Obama is reported exclusively by our sources to have given the hitherto withheld green light to European governments to file a UN Security Council motion proclaiming an independent Palestinian state. Although Netanyahu left the foreign affairs portfolio in his charge and available to be filled by a suitably moderate figure as per the White House’s expectations did not satisfy the US President.
The White House is confident that, with the US voting in favor, the motion will be passed by an overwhelming majority and therefore be binding on the Israeli government.
To show the administration was in earnest, senior US officials sat down with their French counterparts in Paris last week to sketch out the general outline of this motion. According to our sources, they began addressing such questions as the area of the Palestinian state, its borders, security arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians and whether or not to set a hard-and-fast timeline for implementation, or phrase the resolution as a general declaration of intent.
Incorporating a target date in the language would expose Israel to Security Council sanctions for non-compliance.
It was indicated by the American side in Paris that the Obama administration would prefer to give Netanyahu a lengthy though predetermined time scale to reconsider his Palestinian policy or even possibly to broaden and diversify his coalition by introducing non-aligned factions or figures into such key posts as foreign affairs.
At the same time, both American and French diplomats are already using the club they propose to hang over the Netanyahu government’s head for gains in other spheres.
French President Francois Hollande, for instance, the first foreign leader ever to attend a Gulf Council of Cooperation summit, which opened in Riyadh Tuesday to discuss Iran and the Yemen war, used the opportunity to brief Gulf Arab rulers on Washington’s turnaround on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
And US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to present the Obama administration’s new plans for Palestinian statehood to Saudi leaders during his visit to Riyadh Wednesday and Thursday, May 6-7. Kerry will use Washington’s willingness to meet Palestinian aspirations as currency for procuring Saudi and Gulf support for a Yemen ceasefire and their acceptance of the nuclear deal shaping up with Iran.
Explore posts in the same categories: Coalition, Elections in Israel, Foreign policy, International Community, Israel, Israel, Palestinians, Kerry, Netanyahu, Obama, Peace process, Two state solution, United NationsTags: Coalition, Elections in Israel, Foreign Policy, International Community, Israel, Netanyahu, Obama, Palestinians, Peace Process, Two state solution, United Nations
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WarSclerotic 
May 7, 2015 at 2:46 AM
The past predicts the future! Netanyahu’s actions or lack thereof, made what’s transpiring today a fait accompli.
May 7, 2015 at 4:12 PM
Churchill a man perfectly sculptured for his time.
Friday marks the seventieth anniversary of Victory in Europe, or V-E, Day, when the Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender after six long years of war. No one should have savored that day in 1945 more than Winston Churchill, the wartime British prime minister. Yet he was to a considerable degree despondent.
Churchill’s road to May 8, 1945 was arduous. He became a political pariah in the 1930s, partly for warning against the rise of Nazi Germany, and then became premier in May 1940 and led Britain as it stood alone against Germany as it, supported by Russia, dominated Europe, with the United States neutral. Fortune turned only after Soviet Russia became an ally after invaded by Germany. Then America became an ally after Pearl Harbor. And then there were three and a half years more of war.
Yet, Churchill could not fully enjoy the victory. Since early 1945 he had suffered bouts of personal melancholia. More fundamentally, he worried for the world, fearing a rising Soviet threat while British power declined and America remained unpredictable.
May 7, 2015 at 4:35 PM
“unconditional surrender”… Now that’s a term not heard much lately.
May 7, 2015 at 4:53 PM
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.