By Baher Kamal & Fareed Mahdy
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas handed over a request to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member. Then he told the General Assembly “I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favour of our full membership.”
Image: Adam Moft | Wikimedia Commons
“I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership in the UN and our admission as an independent state,” Abbas said on Sept. 23, 2011.
Abbas, like everybody else, knows that the Security Council does not usually have such a “shred of conscious”, but rather a huge “shred of interests”, be these extending influence or winning elections.
In the specific case of the U.S., which announced it would veto any resolution recognising a Palestine State, president Barack Obama needs Jewish votes and lobbies for a second mandate in next year’s election.
Obama, “The First Jewish President”
Not only that–Obama is the “the first Jewish President”, according to the title of a New York magazine’s lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser.
“Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday [Sept. 21rst] many would nod in agreement, not less in Palestine and the Arab world,” wrote in this regard Marwan Bishara*, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, who is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 