Obama Rebuffed as Palestinians Pursue U.N. Seat (Obama calls U.S. a failure)

ny times ^ | 9/21/2011 | By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS

[tobyhill]

A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obama tried to qualify his own call, just a year ago, for a Palestinian state. And President Nicolas Sarkozy of France stepped forcefully into the void, with a proposal that pointedly repudiated Mr. Obama’s approach.

The extraordinary tableau Wednesday at the United Nations underscored a stark new reality: the United States is facing the prospect of having to share, or even cede, its decades-long role as the architect of Middle East peacemaking.

Even before Mr. Obama walked up to the General Assembly podium to make his difficult address, where he declared that “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.,” American officials acknowledged that their various last-minute attempts to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with help from European allies and Russia had collapsed.

American diplomats turned their attention to how to navigate a new era in which questions of Palestinian statehood are squarely on the global diplomatic agenda. There used to be three relevant players in any Middle East peace effort: the Palestinians, Israel and the United States. But expansions of settlements in the West Bank and a hardening of Israeli attitudes have isolated Israel and its main backer, the United States. Dissension among Palestinian factions has undermined the prospect for a new accord as well.

[rbg81]

Watch—Obama will direct our UN Ambassador NOT to use the veto at the last minute. Hope I’m wrong on this, but I get the feeling he doesn’t want to be the only one standing in the way of a Palestinian [terrorist] “state”.

[EQAndyBuzz]

We are going to abstain.

[Texas Fossil]

Honest Charlie Brown this time I won’t move the football.

Suckers.

[barstoolblues]

Last ditch effort my a**.

He knew its already in the pipeline.

He just wanted to posture for NewYork 9 crowd.

[Candor7]

Evacuate women and children from GAZA.....burn it to the ground, spread salt, and move on Bibi.

[Phlap]

Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Rothkopf said, “has managed to read the U.S. political situation perfectly, making Obama acutely aware that he could be losing part of his base, and that, I think, in turn is what has locked Obama in.”

Bulls@%t! What made Obama "aware" was the loss of Weiner's house seat.