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The intractable Middle East conflict threatens to overshadow Prime Minister Stephen Harper's trip to the United Nations next week. Harper is traveling to the large General Assembly gathering ostensibly for meetings on Libya and child and maternal health. On Friday, the prime minister was drawn into the brewing showdown over the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the UN. "We view this unilateral action on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to be not helpful," Harper said during a stop in Saskatoon. "No unilateral actions like this are helpful in terms of establishing a long-run peace in the Middle East. Canada...

The Palestinian Authority on Saturday warned the US against using the veto to thwart its plan to seek membership for a Palestinian state in the UN next week. The PA said that a US veto would "destroy" the two-state solution. The warning came hours after PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced in a speech in Ramallah that he would ask the UN Security Council to accept membership of a Palestinian state. Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat warned that the US Administration's use of a veto to foil the PA move would destroy the two-state solution. "Anyone who supports the two-state solution...

RAMALLAH - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday he would demand full membership of the United Nations when he goes the UN General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States. "We are going to the United Nations to request our legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine in this organization," Abbas said...

WINSTON MID EAST ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY - December 9, 2003 THE FIRST PALESTINIAN STATE by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentatorOh. You didn’t know there was a First Palestinian State? It’s not necessary to go back to 1964 when, with Egypt’s help, Yassir Arafat formed up the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) - with the sole intent of engaging in Terror for the purpose of conquering the Jewish State, with the assistance of all the Arab/Muslim nations. Those goals of the PLO have NOT changed. (1) Arafat was elected Chairman of the PLO in 1969.But, Arafat and his...

The future independent Palestinian state will not include a Jewish minority, a top Palestinian official told USA Today on Wednesday, adding that it was in the best interest of both peoples to "be separated." ... Answering a question about the legal status of a Jewish minority in the future state, Areikat apprently rejected the issue, saying: "I believe, I still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated," ...

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region. Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by...

It really is amazing how openly the Palestinians discuss their plans for making Judea and Samaria "Judenrein" (German for making an area "clean of Jews").  This morning, at a Christian Science Monitor sponsored breakfast, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United States endorsed the forcible transfer of Jews out of a future Palestinian State, something that he has mentioned previously.  Apparently the purpose of this is to allow the two peoples to develop "separate national identities" whatever that means.  Based on this logic, he believes Israel should evict the Palestinians who currently live within the 1949 armistice lines, which I'm pretty...

During a breakfast briefing hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday, Palestinian Ambassador to the United States Maen Rashid Areikat reiterated his call to create a Jew-free Palestinian state. “Well, I personally still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated, and we can contemplate these issues in the future,” he said when asked by The Daily Caller if he could imagine a Jew being elected mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in a future independent Palestinian state. “But after the experience of 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction,...

The Saudis effectively ended their strategic alliance with the US in the aftermath of the US-supported overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Since then the Saudis have strengthened their ties to China and Russia and from what I understand have refused to sign any new oil contracts with the Americans. Now in this op-ed in the New York Times, the Saudis are hitching a ride on the Palestinian UN bid to justify their previous abandonment of America. Saudi Prince Turki Al-FaisalAs my readers are well aware, I think that the US's abandonment of Mubarak was one of the greatest strategic errors the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration says will veto any bid by the Palestinians to seek statehood recognition at the U.N. Security Council. The administration had long said it opposed such a unilateral move by the Palestinians.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats. The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20. The administration has made it clear to Mr....

ABSTRACT The United States has begun a diplomatic campaign to prevent a confrontation this month over a Palestinian plan to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations. FULL TEXT.....

In a statement that raises new questions, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem is denying comments from their representative in which he warned the US would veto a Palestinian statehood move at the United Nations and that financial aid would be cut by Congress if the Palestinians took that step. The denial comes after the office of key Palestinian official Saeb Erekat claimed US Consul General Daniel Rubinstein made just such a warning during a meeting last week. While the American interest in keeping bilateral diplomacy secret and vague in public is nothing new, the denial contrasts with the general...