[Evil Slayer]

Because the Palestinians believe they can get what they want from the UN, they have not been willing to make any concessions or even enter into serious negotiations with Israel. Russia has now joined with China in announcing that they will vote in favor of full Palestinian statehood. The friends of Israel are few and dwindling, and at the vote next week, the Jewish state is likely to find few supporters.

The bottom line is this…while a Security Council veto would deny the Palestinians official member status they can also seek upgraded observer status at the General Assembly as a non-member state.

This could be interpreted as implicit UN recognition of Palestinian statehood because the assembly would be acknowledging that the Palestinians control an actual state. The advantage of this option is that it would require only a simple majority of the General Assembly. Since around 120 countries have already recognized the state of Palestine to date, it would likely win such a vote overwhelmingly.

If the Palestinians were to be recognized as a non-member state, they would be able to sign certain international treaties, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which they cannot currently sign. This will mean thousands of lawsuits against Israel and isolation and demonization of the State of Israel.