All but resigned to the inevitability of a Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations later this month, Jewish groups are hoping that its effects can be blunted through aggressive diplomacy and the threat of action by Congress.
Jewish groups are urging foreign diplomats to push for language that would make any resolution more palatable to Israel and supporting a renewed push to restart the peace process as an incentive. They also are counting on congressional penalties against the Palestinians should the eventual resolution be unfavorable to Israel.
The Obama administration recently dispatched Dennis Ross, the National Security Council’s Middle East adviser, and David Hale, its Middle East peace special envoy to the region, to try to come up with a formula that will convince the Palestinians to shelve the U.N. bid.
Insiders, however, don’t have much hope that U.S. efforts will succeed.
Palestinian officials insist they intend to go through with their statehood effort and will ask the U.N. Security Council to admit a Palestinian state as a U.N. member. The United States has made clear that it would veto any such resolution.
Meanwhile, a resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood in the U.N. General Assembly would likely gain the support of a majority of member nations, but a G.A. vote would be largely symbolic and would not give Palestinians U.N. membership.
Jewish groups are trying to persuade key countries to shape a resolution more favorable toward Israel.
“We’re in a much better place than a couple of months ago,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of the Israel Project. “A lot more of the diplomats are better educated.”
A resolution recognizing the eventuality of Palestinian statehood might even be beneficial, Mizrahi said.
“A watered-down resolution that doesn’t say where lines are, doesn’t talk about refugees and recognizes the validity of a Jewish state [would be] a victory for all sides,” she said.
The American Jewish Committee has had 300 meetings with diplomats from 70 countries the past three months — and expects another 100 before the vote, which is expected by Sept. 21.
Said David Harris, AJC’s executive director: “There have been some in the Arab world who have said recently that this is not going to work, it’s not going to advance the goal of a Palestinian state, it may backfire, it may set the prospects for peace back, and the Palestinians may be blamed because this was their idea.”
A failure on statehood recognition could spur anti-government protests among Palestinians — a possibility that might nudge leaders toward accepting a G.A. vote short of statehood recognition, one that upgrades the Palestinian U.N. delegation’s observer status, said Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL.