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Adam Lebor

ByAdam Lebor, Adam Lebor

Opinion

Israel should be the first to recognise Palestine

September 15, 2011 09:58
3 min read

Israel is under siege. Last week, Egypt allowed the Israeli embassy in Cairo to be sacked. Turkey, once Israel's most important regional ally, has expelled the Israeli ambassador. Recep Erdogan, the Prime Minister, seems set on further confrontations, apparently promising to send Turkish warships to escort the next aid convoy to Gaza.

But these setbacks pale in comparison to the coming diplomatic tsunami.

The Palestinians have seized the diplomatic initiative and Israel is flailing hopelessly, trying to impose old patterns on a new paradigm. Despite the best efforts of the Israeli foreign ministry it seems certain that, later this month, the United Nations General Assembly will vote overwhelmingly to recognise an independent Palestine as the UN's 194th member state.

The move has ironic echoes of Resolution 181 in November 1947, when the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The vote will have to be ratified by the Security Council. The United States, one of the permanent five members with veto powers, has said it will not support the statehood bid. For the moment at least, the quasi-statelet of Palestine will continue in its present limbo; not yet a proper country but much more than an occupied territory.