The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has praised and thanked President Barack Obama for his public commitment to veto a Palestinian statehood bid if it reaches the United Nations Security Council. The commitment was made public by Wendy Sherman, the newly confirmed Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs during her Senate confirmation hearing this week.
“The United States is very resolved to a veto threat in the Security Council. What we are very resolved about as well is urging the parties to enter into direct negotiations again … The President has been very clear that a UN resolution to recognize Palestine will not get us to the two-state solution that both parties seek, and that most of the world seeks,” Sherman said at her confirmation hearing. Also, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “I think the president’s been clear all along that he opposes this, and has also made clear that the U.S. would oppose such a move firmly in the U.N.” (Josh Rogan, ‘Obama administration confirms it would veto Palestinian statehood at the U.N.,’ Foreign Policy ‘The Cable’ blog, September 8, 2011). Ms. Sherman also said, “The administration has been very clear that if any such resolution were put in front of the Security Council, that we would veto it” (Natasha Mozgovaya, ‘State Department official says U.S. would veto Palestinian UN bid,’ Haaretz, September 9, 2011).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We commend President Obama for making it publicly clear that his administration will veto the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations Security Council.
“It would be wrong and strategically dangerous if Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) be permitted to obtain statehood by circumventing negotiations and peace-making with Israel. Mahmoud Abbas is seeking to obtain statehood without negotiations with Israel because he refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He also seeks to avoid an agreement because it would entail a genuine end of conflict and end to claims upon Israel.
“We have it direct from Mahmoud Abbas himself that, as he put it in May, ‘Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.’
“The PA is violating its Oslo commitments, specifically the 1995 Oslo II agreement, by seeking to alter the political situation by any means other than negotiations with Israel. Oslo II stipulates that ‘Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.’
“President Obama has clearly done the right thing. We dare not establish a racist, anti-Semitic terrorist beggar state that this would surely be. This is especially so at a time when the PA continues to engage in incitement to hatred and murder in its media, mosques, schools and youth camps and has signed a unity government agreement with the ‘kill the Jews’ Hamas terrorist organization. Moreover, it is especially appropriate that the U.S. declare its intention to veto when the PLO ambassador to the U.S., Maen Airikat, has stated that a future Palestinian state should be Jew-free.”