Shoshana Bryen quoted in The Jewish Week (NY) on Palestinian statehood declaration, 4/18/2011
Block Statehood Bid Aggressively, Groups Urge U.S.
James D. Besser – Washington Correspondent
Monday, April 18, 2011
As if it didn’t already have its hands full with upheavals across the Arab world, hot wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and budget chaos at home, the Obama administration is facing another growing pressure: Jewish groups pushing it to aggressively block the Palestinian push for United Nations endorsement of a unilaterally declared state in September.
Block Statehood Bid Aggressively, Groups Urge U.S.
James D. Besser – Washington Correspondent
Monday, April 18, 2011
As if it didn’t already have its hands full with upheavals across the Arab world, hot wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and budget chaos at home, the Obama administration is facing another growing pressure: Jewish groups pushing it to aggressively block the Palestinian push for United Nations endorsement of a unilaterally declared state in September.
Whether the UN drive is just a ploy to force bigger concessions from the Jewish state or a path that Palestinian leaders believe will lead to statehood, the accelerating campaign is a major diplomatic danger for Israel — a “diplomatic-political tsunami,” as Defense Minister Ehud Barak called it last month. And the UN juggernaut poses complex challenges for a U.S. administration that risks joining Israel in international isolation.
“It’s a huge dilemma for the administration, because it could put them in the position of having to oppose a Palestinian statehood resolution supported by 200-plus states,” said Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv. “The way it looks now, we would be the only nation opposed. The administration better start thinking now about how it’s going to handle it.”
Critics like Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), say a distracted, confused administration isn’t doing nearly enough to avert the threat.