Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

Will USA veto Palestine bid?

If they do then the already opinion of USA (and Britain) will be even lower in the ME and lead to increasing problems.

Anybody guess the price of oil over the next few years?

Of course the US will veto if Palestine get its 9 votes. The US is busily doing the rounds of the 15 to bribe a few to vote no so it can avoid using its veto. A number may abstain, such as the UK, Germany. The use of the veto will isolate the US and Israel.

Palestine will probably then go to the General Assembly, where they will easily get a majority of the 193 countries.The vote for them could be 160+. That will give them membership, although at a lower level. Even the lower level membership allows Palestine to go to the International Court of Justice to charge Israel with war crimes such as the continued settlement, the Gaza blockade etc.

as have voiced in the past, USA in this instance should be totally ashamed ..... it would be very easy to bring israel to the (sensible) negotiating table and to halt its continued building on the west bank - stop the aid for a bit and bingo

i don't think UK has much input here, and as far as i know, is not inclined to use its veto .... indeed, UK (FCO) has traditionally been quite heavily pro arab

Who gives a shit about them

about whom?

The US has a poor history regarding Palestinian rights or attempts to solve the impass. It was 23 years ago that the UN General Assembly decided to briefly move its session from New York to Switzerland.

It was because the Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat was to deliver a speech to the General Assembly of the UN. The US thought it could thwart the work of the UN and hold it to ransom by the U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz refusing to issue Yasser Arafat an entry visa to the United States. I remember the other members of the UN being pretty annoyed at the time.

Israel, and the Gaza dwellers they are killing.

i do - others can decide for themselves

Israel are bully boys.

i concur

And they want to join the UN lol.

surely israel are already part of UN

You could be right Mr.C

Of course Israel is a member of the UN. They are one of the 193 countries that make up the General Assembly of the UN. They have been a member since 1949.

The Security Council has only 15 members. There are 5 permanent members (China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) and another ten others that rotate from the 193. The current ten extra members are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Portugal, Brazil, India, South Africa, Colombia, Lebanon, Gabon and Nigeria. Some of those change this year and the rest next.

For Palestine to gain full membership they need at least 9 of the 15 to vote for them with none of the 5 permanent members voting against and none of the 5 permament memers using a veto.

Should be chucked out for violating human rights.

Who?

USA or UK or Israel?




















Or Russia, China or .............................

Israel

I saw an account of an interview with Netenyahu's father that was done a few years ago. He said that there was little point in negociating with him as he would always set criteria that could never be met or agreed to by the Palestinians. The intention being to drag out the peace process over years while settlements were increased in the West Bank as the object was the complete annexation of the West Bank as part of Israel. It is interesting that a number of members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) suggest this annexation only last week as a reply to Palestine seeking statehood.

Palestine was granted observer status in 1974, so it was bizzare today to see Sarkozy giving a speech at the UN today in which he suggested giving Palestine that status. I would have thought that he would have been briefed better.

The Israeli representative was interviewed by Sky News and said that he thought it was really unreasonable of the Palestinians to ask for statehood and should resume talk without preconditions. Of course Netenyahu has his list of preconditions which are mainly unreasonable and designed to be refused and Palestine just asks for illegal settlement to stop.

The boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign (BDS) effectively closed down Israeli beauty product supplier Ahava in London after two years of bi-weekly protests.

The pro-Palestinian activists targeted Ahava based on the fact that its main headquarters are in illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem and that its products were imported from the Dead Sea, which Israel has blockaded from Palestinians since 2000 in contravention of the Dead Sea Agreements.

Although the protests at times led to the deployment of British police officers near the shop located on the prestigious Covent Garden area of London, the store incurred heavy losses and eventually closed down.

The closure came also after the propertys owner decided not to renew a lease agreement with Ahava.

I am not sure how Hilary will view this.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/bill-clinton-netanyahu-isn-t-interested-in-mideast-peace-deal-1.386222

Bill Clinton: Netanyahu isn't interested in Mideast peace deal

Former U.S. President says a cynical perspective of Prime Minister's calls for negotiations 'means that he's just not going to give up the West Bank'.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for the inability to reach a peace deal that would end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, the former U.S. president was quoted by Foreign Policy magazine as claiming that Netanyahu lost interest in the peace process as soon as two basic Israelis demands seemed to come into reach: a viable Palestinian leadership and the possibility of normalizing ties with the Arab world.

"The Israelis always wanted two things that once it turned out they had, it didn't seem so appealing to Mr. Netanyahu," Clinton said, adding that Israel wanted "to believe they had a partner for peace in a Palestinian government, and there's no question -- and the Netanyahu government has said -- that this is the finest Palestinian government they've ever had in the West Bank."

Furthermore, the former U.S. president is quoted by Foreign Policy as saying that Israel was also on the verge of being recognized by Arab nations adding that the "king of Saudi Arabia started lining up all the Arab countries to say to the Israelis, if you work it out with the Palestinians ... we will give you immediately not only recognition but a political, economic, and security partnership."

"This is huge.... It's a heck of a deal," Clinton said, adding: "That's what happened. Every American needs to know this. That's how we got to where we are."

"The real cynics believe that the Netanyahu's government's continued call for negotiations over borders and such means that he's just not going to give up the West Bank," he added.

Clinton also said he felt the Palestinians would accept the deal rejected by former PA President Yasser Arafat in 2000 negotiations with then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, saying that Palestinian leaders "have explicitly said on more than one occasion that if [Netanyahu] put up the deal that was offered to them before -- my deal -- that they would take it."

"For reasons that even after all these years I still don't know for sure, Arafat turned down the deal I put together that Barak accepted," he was quoted by Foreign Policy as saying. "But they also had an Israeli government that was willing to give them East Jerusalem as the capital of the new state of Palestine."


The same story in the Jerusalem post

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=239170

The former US president attacked Netanyahu's government and said it had received all of the assurances previous Israeli governments said they wanted but now won't accept those terms to make peace.

"Now that they have those things, they don't seem so important to this current Israeli government, partly because it's a different country," Clinton was quoting as saying. "In the interim, you've had all these immigrants coming in from the former Soviet Union, and they have no history in Israel proper, so the traditional claims of the Palestinians have less weight with them."