The Palestinians’ U.N. Gambit

“So far,” Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told me, “Obama’s not winning the day.” Britain appears adamant about supporting the Palestinians’ U.N. effort while the French have made clear that they, too, would support a Palestinian effort, Schanzer says, “unless there is progress.”

Oddly, in fending off a U.N. effort, Obama has not made much use, at least publicly, of the potential impact of Hamas in the unity government. Schanzer says that many of the countries inclined to support the Palestinians at the United Nations (e.g. Latin America, Scandinavia, much of Western Europe) couldn’t care less that Hamas is a terrorist group. Nevertheless, Schanzer contends that the administration should be making a much bigger deal of the Hamas arrangement, explaining, “This is the end of the reform movement that they have so heavily invested in.” If Hamas is to play an ongoing role, Schanzer surmises, reform-minded Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would almost certainly go, and with him the hope for a technically competent and reasonably non-corrupt government.

Schanzer observes ruefully, “This is the first successful diplomatic initiative other than terrorism” by the Palestinians. Terrorism got the world to pay attention to the Palestinians and now the “international community” (an oxymoron since it is quite obvious we don’t share common goals or values) is prepared to carve up Israel and empower the Palestinians to go to the International Criminal Court to sue for land and other sanctions.