It was a foregone conclusion that Palestine's status at the UN would be upgraded. The state of Palestine has already been recognized by 132 countries, and the Palestinians have 80 embassies and 40 representative offices around the world. Still, such support has all the more impact when it is shown on television screens to millions of people around the world. When it comes to Palestine or Israel, Thursday's General Assembly vote of 138-9 with 41 abstentions showed conclusively where the sympathies of the UN, and by extension, the world, lie. The result surpassed the 130 the Palestinians were aiming for. They did not want just a simple majority, which is all they needed, but lobbied hard for support of the West, and they got it, winning over major European countries including France, Italy and Spain. It is to the Palestinians' credit that powers Germany and Britain were among Western nations that abstained. The Palestinians could not get Israel or the United States to change their positions. Netanyahu called the vote “meaningless,” and said that it won't change anything on the ground, and won't advance the establishment of a Palestinian state but will rather put it further off. During his three years in office – and Barack Obama's four – the peace talks have gone nowhere. During the same time, illegal Jewish settlements have sprung up everywhere. Half a million Israelis now live on Palestinian land and Abbas cannot negotiate as long as this blatant land grab continues. And now, with Obama reelected and Netanyahu likely to win another term starting in January, the peace process seems as bleak as ever. Is it any wonder Abbas went to the UN? The UN vote might not give statehood, but neither will statehood come from Israel or the US. The upgrading of the Palestinians' status from an observer to a non-member observer state is not symbolic. If so, why were the US and Israel so worried about Mahmoud Abbas going to the UN seeking this new position? Their fear is that with their newly enhanced status, the Palestinians can now gain access to UN agencies and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court, which could allow Palestinians to go after Israel for war crimes and its ongoing settlement building on war-won land. However, Abbas' signals that UN recognition is not a substitute for talks but a way of re-energizing them should have allayed fears. Apparently, they have not. The move could cause a reduction of US economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might reduce monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects for Palestinians. And the vote did not stop the psychological war. Preceding the vote that the Palestinians were sure to win, America's UN Ambassador Susan Rice could not help but predict that when the Palestinian people wake up tomorrow “they will find that little about their lives has changed.” The truth is that if the Palestinians had not elevated themselves at the UN, then there would have been no chance for their lives to change at all.
