Associated Press
via The Washington Examiner
11/29/2012
Palestinians celebrate as they watch a screen showing the U.N. General Assembly votes on a resolution to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to a nonmember observer state, In the west bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. The U.N. General Assembly has voted by a more than two-thirds majority to recognize the state of Palestine. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians’ status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by the 193-member world body late Thursday by a vote of 138-9 with 41 abstentions. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a victory decades in the making for the Palestinians after years of occupation and war. It was a sharp rebuke for Israel and the United States.
A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation, as the final vote was cast.
In an extraordinary lineup of international support, more than two-thirds of the world body’s 193 member states approved the resolution upgrading the Palestinians to a nonmember observer state. It passed 138-9, with 41 abstentions.
The historic vote came 65 years to the day after the U.N. General Assembly voted in 1947 to recognize a state in Palestine, with the jubilant revelers then Jews. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence have followed…
…Calling the vote “meaningless,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of spreading “mendacious propaganda” against Israel in a speech he rejected as “defamatory and venomous.”
“The resolution in the U.N. today won’t change anything on the ground,” Netanyahu said. “It won’t advance the establishment of a Palestinian state, but rather, put it further off.”…
…the Palestinians lobbied hard for Western support, winning over key European countries including France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Ireland, as well as Japan and New Zealand. Germany and Britain were among the many Western nations that abstained.
Joining the United States and Israel in voting “no” were Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama…
…With its newly enhanced status, the Palestinians can now gain access to U.N. agencies and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court, which could become a springboard for going after Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land…
Read the complete article at The Washington Examiner.
Update: The Astute Bloggers have two related articles:
Judea/Samaria Should be Annexed
..The Women in Green movement is calling on the Israeli government to immediately annex Judea and Samaria.
The call came in response to the application by the Palestinian Authority Thursday for status as a non-member observer state at the United Nations General Assembly.
In a statement sent to media, WIG spokespersons Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover quoted the founding prime minister of the Jewish State, David Ben Gurion, who said, “What’s important is not what the Nations say, but what the Jews do!”
Following the expected vote to approve the PA’s application on Thursday, the WIG movement “calls upon the Israeli government to respond with the immediate application of Israeli sovereignty over all Judea and Samaria,” they said…
Also, Congress Threatens to Cut Off Aid to the PLO it it Goes Ahead With its Faux-Statehood Bid at UN
Update 2: Video from Freedom’s Lighthouse:
- Marco Rubio Proposes Defunding the UN
- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on U.N. Move to Recognize Palestine as an Observer State: “No Decision by the U.N. can Break the 4,000 Year-Old Bond between the People of Israel and the Land of Israel” UPDATED: U.N. Recognizes Palestine as Observer State by 138-9-41 Vote; U.S. Calls Move “Unfortunate” and “Counterproductive”
Update 3: MAP: How the world voted on the UN resolution recognizing a Palestinian State
