And shows that Israel controls US foreign policy:
"the United States is in the unenviable position of leading the opposition to something it actually supports"
Of course, to say such a thing means you are an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist (thank you).
What more is there to say?
"Palestinians launch blitz for recognition; Protests aimed at influencing United Nations" September 09, 2011|By Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinians launched a campaign yesterday to rally support for UN recognition as an independent state, planning demonstrations in the Palestinian territories and worldwide before asking the world body to accept them as a full member state later this month.
The public relations blitz helps set up a diplomatic showdown at the United Nations, where Israel and the United States are leading opposition to the bid, and adds to concerns in Israel that mass demonstrations could turn violent.
The US administration said for the first time yesterday that it would veto any Security Council resolution to recognize Palestinian statehood....
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"Palestinians set to seek UN seat; US promises to veto Security Council move" by Isabel Kershner and Rick Gladstone, New York Times / September 17, 2011
JERUSALEM - The Palestinian president announced that he would seek membership for a Palestinian state at the United Nations Security Council next week, a move strongly opposed by Israel and the United States that adds significant tension to one of the most intractable conflicts in the Middle East....
US, Israeli, and European diplomats have struggled to dissuade Abbas and his aides from taking such a step, and his decision to proceed anyway represents what could become a foreign policy debacle for the Obama administration....
The United States has said it will use its veto at the Security Council to stop any Palestinian statehood bid, adhering to the US-Israeli view that the only way to achieve peace is through direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel....
That's why I sometimes call it USrael.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel issued a brief statement after the speech, saying, “Peace will not be achieved by a unilateral approach to the United Nations.’’
Proved since 1948.
*******************
A US veto of the Palestinian bid for full membership would serve as another blow to American credibility in the Arab world, as the Obama administration tries to place itself on the side of protesters in Arab autocracies seeking freedom and justice....
As if we had any left.
Critics view US policy as muddled as the Obama administration supports uprisings in Libya and Syria, but looks the other way at a crackdown by its ally Bahrain.
And the support of the butcher of Yemen. Btw, the policy isn't muddled if you understand PNAC/Neo-Con plans for world domination. The agenda is still being advanced despite the change in presidents.
A veto of Palestinian statehood would intensify perceptions of US double standards.
It's already glaring.
In recent days, senior administration officials said, the United States had been trying to get agreement on a statement by the so-called Middle East Quartet - the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia - affirming President Obama’s proposal in May to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state, using as a baseline the pre-1967 boundaries of Israel, with land swaps.
With such a clear roadmap in hand, these officials said, the United States hoped the Palestinians would feel comfortable abandoning their statehood campaign and return to direct negotiations with the Israelis.
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"Obama looks past bid for statehood" September 17, 2011
WASHINGTON - Facing a potentially destabilizing diplomatic clash, President Obama heads to the United Nations next week looking beyond a vote on Palestinian statehood and toward laying the groundwork for the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks.
Obama had hoped to focus his efforts at the meetings of the UN General Assembly on boosting the standing of Libya’s former rebel leaders and touting the United Nations’ role in dismantling Moammar Khadafy’s regime. But success in Libya seems likely to be overshadowed by a Palestinian push for full UN membership, an effort over which Obama has little influence.
Truer words have never appeared in my printed paper.
White House officials say it is still unclear what course the Palestinians will take in New York next week. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that he will ask the UN Security Council to endorse his statehood bid, though he said he was open to other unspecified options. The United States has pledged to veto the bid.
But the White House insists its main focus is not on what happens at the UN but on resuming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. US officials contend that those negotiations provide the only credible pathway for the Palestinians to achieve statehood.
“Whatever happens at the United Nations, there’s going to have to be a process to get these two parties back to the table when we get beyond next week,’’ White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.
As part of the effort to revive the stalled negotiations, Obama will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on the sidelines of the UN meeting next week. But whether Obama can make any progress is highly uncertain.
Where he will tell Obama what to say at the UN.
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"US, Europe try to delay Palestinian UN bid; Seek to head off vote and a return to talks with Israel" by Matthew Lee Associated Press / September 19, 2011
WASHINGTON - The United States and Europe are racing to avert or delay a looming showdown over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations....
It is sickening to see these lap-dog governments groveling at the feet of Israel.
Officials say the effort may be more about damage control than diplomacy.
The Palestinians are frustrated by their inability to win from Israel concessions such as a freeze on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They want to seize the moment to try to gain greater standing and attention with a high-stakes wager on statehood and UN membership. The United States and Israel vehemently opposed this move.
Gee, the Palestinians sure do seize a lot of things accoding to the AmeriKan media.
Only 12 months ago, President Obama said he wanted the UN to be welcoming Palestine as its newest member this year. But talks long have broken down, and the United States is in the unenviable position of leading the opposition to something it actually supports.
See how the slipped that truth into the back of a sentence in the middle of the piece?
The United States has promised a veto of the Palestinian bid at the Security Council, leading to fears the action could spark violence in the region.
The American side was working to secure additional opposition to recognition, officials said. Without nine affirmative votes in the 15-member Council, the Palestinian resolution would fail and Washington is hoping it will not have to act alone.
Against their own policy.
US officials believe that six other members may vote against or abstain, meaning the Palestinians would fall short. That tally could not be immediately confirmed.
Heading off or watering down the Palestinian resolution had been the goal of international diplomats. They hoped to parlay that success into a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders where the two sides would revive negotiations.
Yet the Palestinians have refused to back down and give up the little leverage they hope to win....
Even with a loss in the Security Council, the Palestinians were expected to take their case for recognition to the General Assembly, where they enjoy widespread support and the United States cannot block it.
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"Palestinians set to formally seek UN membership; Israeli leader also asks Abbas to meet in NYC" by Mohammed Daraghmeh Associated Press / September 20, 2011
UNITED NATIONS - The Palestinians brushed aside heated Israeli objections and a promised US veto yesterday, vowing to submit a letter formally requesting full UN membership when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the General Assembly.
As the Palestinians edged closer to seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Abbas to meet with him in New York. The Israeli leader said he wanted to resume peace talks, upping the pressure on Abbas and building on the frenzied diplomacy swirling around the Palestinians bid.
Regardless, Abbas said he had not been swayed by what he called “tremendous pressure’’ to drop the bid for United Nations recognition and instead to resume peace talks with Israel. Senior aides to the Palestinian leader said Abbas was undaunted by threats of punitive measures.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, however, there was still time to find a solution to the diplomatic crisis. Clinton told reporters in New York that the United States is talking with all sides to defuse the standoff, noting that the week was young and there were still several days to seek compromise....
The push at the world body is the first step to statehood for Palestinians who have for decades complained of being guests in their own land.
Sure haven't been treated like guests.
Although any submission by the Palestinians could wait weeks or months for the UN action, it has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity with Mideast mediators scrambling to find a way to draw the two sides back to a negotiating table.
Each side in the Israeli-Palestinian talks has accused the other of being untrustworthy and intransigent participants in the peace process.
In a statement, Netanyahu called on Abbas to begin “direct negotiations in New York and continue them in Jerusalem and Ramallah.’’ But the statement provided no other details or indications that Netanyahu was willing to cede to any of the Palestinians’ demands.
The quartet of Mideast mediators - the United States, the UN, the European Union, and Russia - has said that Palestinian statehood should not be granted before a resumption of peace talks. The long-stalled negotiations have been unable to solve the key issues of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the status of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital....
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"Palestinians push forward in mission to obtain UN membership; Sarkozy presses officials to drop statehood bid" September 21, 2011|By Mohammed Daraghmeh and Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - The Palestinian delegation relentlessly knocked on diplomatic doors at the UN trying to sell their case for international recognition. Israel’s prime minister, meanwhile, issued dire warnings against hasty action as he boarded his jet for New York.
The issue of the unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood has consumed diplomats who are gathering for today’s opening of the annual UN General Assembly ministerial meeting....
For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in a meeting with members of his hardline Likud Party before leaving Jerusalem late yesterday, vowed to speak “the truth’’ in New York - “the truth of a people that wants peace, a nation that was attacked time after time and that is being attacked time after time by those that don’t oppose our policies but rather our very existence.’’
Did his tongue turn to sand after he said all that?
He said he would warn world leaders against prematurely establishing a Palestinian state when many issues in the conflict must still be resolved. He did not elaborate, saying this would be the focus of his speech to the UN on Friday, scheduled shortly after Abbas’s.
Uh-oh.
The White House said late yesterday that President Obama would meet with Abbas on the sidelines of the UN gathering today....
Officials close to the US and European delegations indicated Obama would be making a last effort to steer Abbas away from a move in the Security Council that would force Washington to act on its promise to block the move. American diplomats have worked at a furious pace to lure the Palestinians back to negotiations, knowing a US veto was certain to inflame anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.
Who could force AmeriKa to do anything?
While the United States has said it will vote no, the other 14 members of the UN Security Council have not declared their positions.
China, Russia, India, Lebanon, South Africa, and Brazil were expected to vote yes. Germany was expected to vote no with the United States or abstain. Still unknown were the positions of France, Britain, Bosnia, Colombia, Gabon, Nigeria, and Portugal, with many saying they needed to see the text of a draft resolution before making a decision.
Related: The Map That Explains Everything
US and other diplomats say the European Union, supported by the United States, was now trying to work out wording of an agreement that could avert the UN showdown over Palestine. There was no sign, however, that Israel or the Palestinians will agree.
Officials say Israel is being asked to accept its pre-1967 borders with land swaps as the basis for a two-state solution. The Palestinians would essentially have to recognize Israel’s Jewish character.
Those issues remain sticking points.
Officials say there is also disagreement among the mediators as Russia finds some elements unacceptable.
Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic negotiations.
Were the Palestinians to take Sarkozy’s advice, they would become a nonmember observer state, a status like that of the Holy See.
That would give them an opportunity to seek membership in UN agencies and join treaties, including the Rome statute that established the International Criminal Court.
But Mohammed Ishtayeh, an Abbas aide, said President Michel Suleiman of Lebanon, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, urged the Palestinian leader to proceed with the application for UN membership.
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And it's not just Obama slaving for Israel:
"GOP candidates blast Obama’s Mideast stance
NEW YORK - Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and their GOP presidential rivals slammed President Obama’s Middle East policies yesterday while declaring their support for Israel as the United Nations considered a bid for Palestinian statehood.
Perry, the Texas governor, denounced the president’s Israel policy as “misguided and dangerous,’’ speaking to supporters in New York as the Obama administration worked a few miles away to thwart a UN vote to grant formal recognition to the Palestinian Authority.
Perry also accused Obama of appeasement, as did Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann. Former Massachusetts governor Romney issued a statement accusing Obama of “throwing Israel under the bus.’’
The Republican campaigns have similar goals: establish contrasts with Obama on an issue where he’s struggled; chip away at American Jews’ support for Democrats; and prove their pro-Israel bona fides with the evangelical voters who will play a significant role in the primaries.
I sit here and wonder why that should matter in an American presidential election.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama worked hard to reassure nervous Jewish voters that he would defend Israel as president. But he’s faced doubts and criticism since then.
Perry criticized Obama’s stated goal that any negotiations should be based on Israel’s borders before the 1967 Mideast war, with mutually agreed adjustments and land swaps. Perry, speaking to a group of ultraconservative Jewish and Israeli leaders, called that stance “insulting and naïve.’’
Romney said, “What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster.’’ He called for an end to foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority if the UN vote went the Palestinians’ way.
And if it goes Israel's will he call for an end to that aid?
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"Obama firm against Palestinian bid; UN speech calls for peace talks Tries to keep a delicate balance" September 22, 2011|By Helene Cooper, New York Times
UNITED NATIONS - President Obama declared his opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood through the Security Council yesterday, throwing the weight of the United States directly in the path of the Arab democracy movement even as he hailed what he called the democratic aspirations that have taken hold throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
The world knows hypocrisy when it sees it.
“Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN,’’ Obama said, in an address before world leaders at the General Assembly. “If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.’’
Then let's get rid of the globalist tool and let it go condo.
Instead, Obama said, the international community should continue to push Israelis and Palestinians toward talks on the four intractable “final status’’ issues that have vexed peace negotiations since 1979: The borders of a Palestinian state, security for Israel, the status of Palestinian refugees who left or were forced to leave their homes in Israel, and the fate of Jerusalem, which both sides claim for their capital.
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I just wanted you to see who was paying to bring me my news.
Related: Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Now the newspaper makes sense.
Less than an hour after Obama spoke, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France stood at the same podium in a sharp repudiation, calling for a General Assembly resolution that would upgrade the Palestinians to observer status, as a bridge toward statehood. “Let us cease our endless debates on the parameters,’’ Sarkozy said. “Let us begin negotiations and adopt a precise timetable.’’
For Obama, the challenge in crafting the much-anticipated General Assembly speech was how to address the incongruities of the administration’s position: The president who committed himself to making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians a priority from Day One, who still has not been able to even get peace negotiations going after 2 ½ years; the president who opened the door to Palestinian state membership at the United Nations last year ending up threatening to veto that very membership; the president who was determined to get on the right side of Arab history ending up, in the views of many on the Arab street, on the wrong side of it on the Palestinian issue.
The Arab Spring quandary has been enormously troublesome for Obama. White House officials say he has long been keenly aware that he, like no other US president, stood as a potential beacon to the Arab street as the ultimate symbol of the hopes and rewards of democracy. But since he is the president of the United States, he has had to put US interests first.
Meaning putting Israel's interests first.
So Obama’s 47-minute address appeared, at times, an effort to thread the needle and balance his efforts in support of democratic movements against his efforts to stand behind Israel, America’s foremost ally....
Then why have they spied on us, and why did they do 9/11?
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There they are again.
He hailed the democratic movements in the Ivory Coast, in Tunisia, in South Sudan. Of Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak fell after 30 years, Obama said, “we saw in those protesters the moral force of nonviolence that has lit the world from Delhi to Warsaw; from Selma to South Africa - and we knew that change had come to Egypt and to the Arab world.’’
He hailed the Libyan toppling of Moammar Khadafy and threw his weight behind the protesters in Syria.
The way I read that is all are either U.S.-instigated or still under control.
But, he said, Palestinians must make peace with Israel before gaining statehood themselves....
And if Israel really only wants piece (as in a piece of Palestine, a piece of Lebanon, a piece of Syria....)
Several times as Obama spoke, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, seated in the room, put his forehead in one hand. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whose relationship with Obama has often been tense, expressed appreciation after the speech, calling it a “badge of honor’’ when both leaders met later in the day.
Maybe politicians should be badged with those that own them.
Obama also used his speech as a platform to make other criticisms. He rebuked Iran as a “government that refuses to recognize the rights of its own people’’ - even as Iranian authorities were releasing two US hikers convicted on spying charges there, a sore point in the estranged US-Iran relationship for the past two years. Obama also accused Syria’s government of torturing, detaining, and murdering its citizens in that country’s uprising, and he called for the Security Council to slap sanctions on that country.
There he is PUSHING ISRAEL'S AGENDA!!!
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Just wanted to remind you who was bringing us this fine report.
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"Palestinians buck Obama, press UN for admission" September 24, 2011|By Neil MacFarquhar and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times
UNITED NATIONS - President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, formally requested full United Nations membership yesterday for his as yet undefined country. But before the thunderous applause greeting his announcement in the General Assembly had faded, international powers laid out a new plan to resume direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that was designed to delay a contentious vote on the Palestinian request as long as possible.
In a day full of diplomatic theater, Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel each laid out the tangled history of their bloody conflict in passionate, lengthy speeches less than an hour apart, while the United States, Russia, and European powers haggled in a back room for a formula to bring the parties back to the negotiating table and prevent the Palestinian bid for membership from becoming a cause for violence.
Continents away, thousands of Palestinians celebrated across the West Bank, with cheers erupting from the rapt crowds watching live when Abbas held aloft four pages of the United Nations application letter - a symbolic step toward international recognition of statehood that many Palestinians also saw as a form of peaceful defiance against Israel....
I know one who was not celebrating:
"I simply oppose it because I was never asked what I want as a Palestinian. I was marginalised like millions of Palestinians"
That's a tremendous point; no one has ever asked the Palestinians.
Related:
"Ayatollah decries two-state solution
TEHRAN - Iran’s supreme leader assailed a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians yesterday, saying the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations is doomed to fail. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Palestinians should not limit themselves to seeking a country within the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip - which would implicitly recognize Israel - because “all land belongs to Palestinians.’’ Iran doesn’t recognize Israel and considers it an archenemy (AP)."
I didn't always see it that way, but I do now after the way Israel has behaved.
Netanyahu said Israel could not return to its 1967 borders because it needed strategic depth to defend itself, particularly from the threat of militant Islam.
I am so sick of intelligence agency created bogeymen.
Much is riding on how international powers handle the Palestinian request, with expectations soaring in the West Bank and the Arab world that the step Abbas has taken will result in genuine change.
“The status quo is completely unacceptable,’’ the French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said in an interview. “If there is a veto or a ‘no’ vote in the Security Council, what will happen on the ground? What will happen in the Arab street, in the Palestinian street?
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Just wanted to remind you, well, you know.
“There is a very high risk of violence and demonstrations,’’ he said. “I think that Israel will be completely isolated in the region. The situation has changed to the extreme around Israel - in Egypt, in Syria, with Turkey and so on. It’s unreasonable to say, ‘We don’t move; we wait.’ ’’
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The administration is caught between not wanting to inflame Arab public opinion by exercising yet another veto in support of Israel and the domestic political perils of pressuring Israel, which can alienate Jewish voters and campaign donors....
They are 2% of the population $o why the catering?
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"Abbas may reject international blueprint for peace talks; Palestinian terms ignored, he says" by Amy Teibel Associated Press / September 25, 2011
UNITED NATIONS - President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, strongly suggested yesterday that he would reject a peacemaking blueprint put forward by international mediators, saying he would not agree to any proposal that disregarded Palestinian conditions for the resumption of peace talks.
Abbas' willingness to stand up to Washington has won him newfound respect at home, where he had been considered a lackluster leader. The unilateral bid for statehood and UN membership reflects deep-seated Palestinian exasperation over 44 years of Israeli occupation.
Israel has had no comment on the Quartet plan to resume long-stalled negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, which mediators regard as the only way to establish a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has rejected the long-standing conditions Abbas has put forth, saying talks must go forward without imposing terms.
Netanyahu opposes negotiations based on 1967 lines, saying a return to those frontiers would expose Israel’s heartland to rocket fire from the West Bank. And he says the fate of settlements should be left to negotiations.
The Quartet urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months....
The Quartet plan was meant to rechannel to negotiations any momentum the Palestinians would gain from their statehood application. A UN nod would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and continue to restrict access to Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Hamas militants.
But Palestinians are hoping that any upgrade in their international status would give them more clout in any future talks with Israel.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon relayed the Palestinians’ statehood request to the Security Council on Friday, shortly after Abbas formally submitted it. It is expected to be shot down there, either because it won’t win the required support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members, or because the United States will make good on its threat to veto it.
The Security Council will meet tomorrow to deal with the membership request, but final action is likely to take weeks or months....
Washington has been lobbying hard to muster enough support in the Security Council to block the statehood application so the United States won’t have to resort to a veto - something that would be frowned upon by the Arab world at a time when autocratic regimes are coming under assault there.
And something that would expose the U.S. as a servant of Israel.
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"Israeli panel drafts $8b social plan" September 27, 2011|By Isabel Kershner, New York Times
JERUSALEM - In a separate development, the UN Security Council said it will meet tomorrow to start the process of formally considering the Palestinian request for membership in the world body.
Lebanon’s ambassador, Nawaf Salam, who holds this month’s rotating presidency, made a brief appearance before reporters and issued a statement.
He said the council had met yesterday afternoon and decided to take up a decision on referring the issue for further consideration two days hence. That will consist of forming a committee to study the Palestinian submission.
The United States has said it would use its Security Council veto to block Palestinian membership should the measure receive the necessary nine of 15 votes. That would keep the membership bid from advancing to the 193-member General Assembly for the needed two-thirds vote.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said he was grateful to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for quickly forwarding the request to the Security Council. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday submitted the application that Palestine become the United Nations’ 194th member.
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"Israel OK’s more building in East Jerusalem; Follows UN plea by Palestinians" September 28, 2011|By Josef Federman, Associated Press
JERUSALEM - Israel granted the go-ahead yesterday for construction of 1,100 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any freeze in settlement construction, raising already heightened tensions after last week’s Palestinian move to seek UN membership.
Israel’s Interior Ministry said the homes would be built in Gilo, a sprawling Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that spokesman Roi Lachmanovich called a formality.
Yeah, that will help the cause of piece.
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The announcement drew swift condemnation from the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem as their future capital. The United States, European Union, and United Nations all expressed disappointment with Israel’s decision.
That's all?
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Israeli announcement was counterproductive....
Oh, how harsh! How about threatening to cut off their aid?
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"The sense during the past two years that President Obama was steering US policy away from its interests subsided last week. The parts of Obama’s UN speech about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have been written by any Israeli official....
And probably was via some dual national.
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"Palestinians to push for UN membership Nov. 11" by Frank Jordans Associated Press / October 20, 2011
GENEVA—Palestinian diplomats are trying to muster support for a U.N. Security Council vote in New York on Nov. 11 on their bid for membership in the global body, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday.
U.N. diplomats said earlier this week that a Security Council committee considering the membership bid would deliver a report on that day, and that ambassadors would then decide on the next steps.
Any member of the Security Council can request a vote on the Palestinian request, but a resolution recommending membership requires a minimum of nine "yes" votes and no veto by one of the council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.
Once the 15-member Security Council recommends a country's membership its application must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the 193-member General Assembly.
Washington, Israel's closest ally, has already pledged to use its veto if Palestinian membership gets the support of nine or more council members.
"We still have time until Nov. 11, so there is a lot of efforts pushing certain countries to voting in favor," the Palestinian envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told The Associated Press.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told reporters in late September that the membership bid has support so far from eight Security Council members: Russia, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon, Nigeria and Gabon....
That's where today's printed Globe cut it.
He said the Palestinians are lobbying for more votes, including from Bosnia and Colombia.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Colombia on Oct. 11 and was told by President Juan Manuel Santos that Colombia will only recognize a Palestinian state that has been established through negotiations with Israel, which leaves Bosnia as the likely key to a ninth "yes" vote.
Khraishi said "several parties are working" to secure the votes, but declined to elaborate. "I think that we will succeed to get the nine," he added.
Elections to replace five nonpermanent members of the Security Council on Friday could create a grouping even less likely to approve the Palestinians' bid, if it rolls over into the new year.
Winners will take their posts Jan. 1. Strong Palestinian backers Brazil and Lebanon, along with Nigeria and Gabon, will be leaving the council at the same time.
Guatemala, running unopposed for the lone Latin America seat, has never recognized a Palestinian state. Neither has Slovenia, one of three candidates for the East European seat being vacated by Bosnia.
The rest of the candidates have all recognized a Palestinian state: Togo, Mauritania, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Pakistan and Kyrgystan.
"The addition of Guatemala and the subtraction of Brazil would make it a bit more difficult" to get statehood approved, if the vote is held over, said Warren Hoge, senior adviser for external relations at the International Peace Institute, a New York think tank....
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