Just Say No to Palestine

“[With] a little less hysteria and a little more sobriety,” he suggested, adding that we need to wait six months to see how things unfold.

Judging by the initial stories at the beginning of the week, no one followed Leiter’s advice. The media reacted with frenzy to the joint statement from the United Nations Office of Press and Public Diplomacy released in America after Shabbos began in Israel. Eight Arab and Muslim nations signed the US text, which states that the UN mandate for an International Security Force in Gaza over the next two years is “a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict… [that] offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

This wording was part of the US resolution submitted to the UN Security Council for a vote on Monday, after we went to press.

The Israeli media universally cast this as a betrayal. The headline in Israel Hayom’s Hebrew-language edition shouted: “Worse than Obama: Trump’s move is destructive for Israel as Netanyahu remains silent.” The English-language version removed the phrase: “Worse than Obama,” although its senior diplomatic and White House correspondent, Ariel Kahana, didn’t mince words, noting that the Trump administration’s explicit mention of Palestinian statehood in a UN resolution went further than President Obama ever did at the UN. The resolution ties statehood to reforms by the Palestinian Authority but doesn’t specify which reforms or who will oversee them.