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Stay in touch | E-News SignupThe U.N. Should Admit Palestine as a Full-Member State
- Volume 57, Presented On: January 09, 2012
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From the Panel
For: Mustafa Barghouthi
- The U.N. Should Accept Palestine as a Full Member State
Katy Waldman, Slate, January 4, 2012
With Jan. 10’s Slate/Intelligence Squared debate approaching, former Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouthi explains why Israel and the United States are on the wrong side of history. - Why Our Occupation Must End Now
Mustafa Barghouthi, CNN, September 21, 2011
People want freedom and an end to the longest occupation in modern history and one of the worst forms of apartheid ever. Twenty more years of negotiations will not appeal to them and they will not abide a lack of strategic vision from the Palestinian leadership. - Is there Room for Gandhi in Palestine?
Christopher Lydon conversation with Mustafa Barghouthi, Radio Open Source
Ask Palestinians why there is no Gandhi in their movement, and often the answer comes: but there are several, and Mustafa Barghouthi should be recognized more widely as one of them. - Factsheet: The Palestinian National Initiative and Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi
Factsheet Series No. 80, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, May 2010
Most Western media depict a simplistic choice in the Palestinian political scene between caricatures of a “moderate, pro-Western” Fatah, and caricatures of a “violent, extremist” Hamas. In fact, Palestinian political discourse is nuanced, dynamic and engaged – a fact illustrated by the emergence of sophisticated political alternatives despite the pressures of the occupation and international patronage. - Mustafa Barghouthi: Palestinian Defiance
Eric Hazan interview with Mustafa Barghouthi, New Left Review, March-April 2005
The Ramallah doctor and activist, general secretary of the Al Mubadara coalition, on struggles against the Israeli Occupation, from the popular movement of the first Intifada to the tactical errors of the second. - Al Mubadara
The Palestinian National Initiative website. For: Daniel Levy
- Israeli Democracy in Peril
Daniel Levy, Slate, January 6, 2012
Why Daniel Levy thinks Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians is poisoning the Jewish state from within. - September 23, 2011: A Historic Day for Israel-Palestine?
Daniel Levy, Foreign Policy, September 23, 2011
There is no direct or quick fix move from the Palestinian application for U.N. membership to the actual realization of a Palestinian state but the Palestinian U.N. move does represent the most definitive break yet with the failed and structurally flawed strategies for advancing peace of many a year. - Five Comments on Palestine Joining UNESCO
Daniel Levy, Foreign Policy, October 31, 2011
Implications for UNESCO’s vote to admit Palestine as a member. - Beyond the Palestinian Setback at the U.N.
Bernard Gwertzman interview with Daniel Levy, Council on Foreign Relations, November 15, 2011
The Palestinian bid for UN membership should be seen as a desperate plea for revitalizing the process for a two-state solution, however, the stalled peace process looks increasingly irresolvable. - Middle East Peace
Daniel Levy and David Makovsky, Economist Debates, October 2011
Levy and Makovsky debate the motion, “This house believes that bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are not currently a viable way to reach a two-state solution,” for the Economist. - Palestinians Statehood at the U.N.: Why Europeans Should Vote “Yes”
Daniel Levy and Nick Witney, European Council on Foreign Relations September 2011
A unified “yes” from Europe would strengthen the Palestinian’s faith in the efficacy of diplomacy and non-violence and the international community’s commitment to the two-state solution. - Daniel Levy at New America Foundation
Find more links to Daniel Levy’s work at the New America Foundation.
Against: Dore Gold
- Palestine’s Bid for U.N. Membership is Dangerous and Wrong
Katy Waldman, Slate, January 4, 2012
With the Jan. 10 Slate/Intelligence Squared debate approaching, former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Dore Gold explains why the Palestinian effort destabilizes the region. - Countdown to September: Israel, the Palestinians,and the U.N. General Assembly
Dore Gold, Jerusalem Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, May-June 2011
Abbas has chosen unilateralism over a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as called for in previous signed agreements. - Israel’s 1967 Borders Aren’t Defensible
Dore Gold, May 21, 2011
Fair observers have never considered the old armistice line as a non-negotiable starting point for peace talks. - A Bad Deal
Dore Gold, Foreign Policy, April 28, 2011
Why Palestinian unity won’t lead to peace. - The Palestinians Resurrect the Partition Plan
Dore Gold, Israel Hayom, September 9, 2011
Whoever thinks that U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 - the famous Partition Plan - from Nov. 29, 1947, is for historians of the Middle East alone, is not aware of the role that the 64-year-old resolution still plays to this very day. - Articles by Dore Gold
Links to more articles, interviews, and blog posts from Dore Gold.
Against: Aaron David Miller
- The Granddaddy of Dumb Ideas
Aaron David Miller, Slate, January 5, 2012
Why admitting a Palestinian state to the United Nations would be a terrible move. - Humpty Dumpty Palestine
Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy, September 12, 2011
Even if the United Nations grants Palestine statehood, it’s far from looking—or acting—like a real, functioning state. - Palestinian Bid at U.N. Distracts from the Real Crisis
Aaron David Miller, CNN, September 16, 2011
Rarely has so much time, energy and attention been devoted to an issue less consequential than this month's Palestinian bid for statehood at the U.N., an episode characterized by hyperbole and muddled thinking on the part of just about everyone. - Israel’s Fate Is Not on the Line
Aaron David Miller, New York Times, September 15, 2011
For the foreseeable future — with or without a solution to the Palestinian problem — Israel will not only survive, but also is likely to prosper. - September Crisis or Compromise: The Palestinians, the U.N., and the Peace Process
Panel, Wilson Center, September 13, 2011
Aaron David Miller, Nahum Barnea, Hussein Ibish, and Robert Malley offer insight on Palestinian, Israeli, and American strategies and reactions to the Palestinian initiative. - The Mideast Blame Game
Aaron David Miller, Washington Post, August 19, 2011
The story today isn’t about an American threatening Israelis and Palestinians if they don’t get serious about negotiations. These days, everybody is maneuvering to ensure that someone else takes the blame when the dust settles. - Five Myths About Middle East Peace
Aaron David Miller, Washington Post October 3, 2010
Myths about Arab-Israeli peacemaking cause the Obama administration's mediating role to be even more difficult.
Articles For and Against
For The Motion
- Mahmoud Abbas Speech at the U.N.
September 23, 2011
Full text of Mahmoud Abbas’ speech asking for international support for the State of Palestine’s application for admission as a full member of the United Nations. - Palestinians Declare Independence from U.S.
Henry Siegman, National Interest, September 22, 2010
The American insistence on aborting the Palestinians’ initiative and returning them to a peace process in which their fate remains dependent on Israel is shameful. - Palestinians Mulling Post U.N. Vote Strategies
Daoud Kuttab, Huffington Post, November 8, 2011
While the UN bid exposed the hypocrisy of the west, it marked the end of two important phases. Going to the UN marked the total failure of the negotiating process that began two decades earlier in Madrid and was followed by the Oslo Accords. The failure at the Security Council exposes the impotence of the international community. - Why the U.S. Should Support Palestinian Statehood at the U.N.
John B. Judis, New Republic, September 28, 2010
By seeking to win statehood through UN recognition and assistance, the Palestinian leadership is visibly underscoring its commitment to a two-state solution; by doing that, and by rejecting a strategy based on terror and violence for one based on negotiation and multilateral assistance from the United Nations. - J Street Opposes Palestine’s U.N. Bid; U.S. Increasingly Isolated
Tom Hayden, Nation, September 16, 2011
In a setback for progressive peace forces, J Street—the liberal Jewish alternative to AIPAC—has decided to oppose United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state this month. The J Street position, reinforced by the New York Times, effectively shuts down any American maneuverability as the UN decision nears.
Against The Motion
- The Debate on a Palestinian State: Why Talks Are the Only Way Forward
Richard Haass, Time, October 3, 2011
Any “victory” in the U.N. would come with a heavy price tag. - Tel Aviv Journal: If Palestine Declares Statehood, It Won’t Change Anything on the Ground
Martin Peretz, New Republic, August 17, 2011
The more the Palestinians deal in symbols the less ground they will have left to claim. This should be the lesson of the last four and half decades. So long as the Palestinians refuse to negotiate there will be less to negotiate about. - Why the U.N. Should Not Recognize the Proposed Palestinian State
Alan Dershowitz, Huffington Post, September 21, 2011
The United Nations is being asked to grant the Palestinians the status of a "state," for at least some purposes. The question arises what kind of a state will it be? - Viewpoint: How Not to Create a Palestinian State
Yossi Klein Halevi, BBC, September 22, 2011
Halevi, an Israeli author and political commentator, argues that all the Palestinians need to do to get a state is to convince Israelis that this state does not represent a threat. - Recognising Palestine?
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, April 13, 2011
U.N. recognition of a Palestinian make-believe state would be no more meaningful than this fantasy "institution-building", and could push Palestinians even further away from real liberation and self-determination.
