I must keep blogging!

As we are getting to the end of the semester, I realized my blogging as lagged a bit. However the news in the Middle East has not. I think one of the most exciting and contentious bits of news (not that I am understating the mass murder of Syrian citizens and the bombings back and forth by Israel and Palestine are any less interesting) is the status of Palestine.

The UN General Assembly recently voted and gave Palestine Observer State status, however this doesn't do much physically it lends itself to legitimacy in name.  Giving Palestine this legitimacy is mildly concerning to me. A UN mandate is what officially created the state of Israel. While I am all for a two state resolution, I don't believe Palestine should have gained the legitimacy it now has until a two state solution has been established. I feel as though this means any group of organized individuals who want a state in an area that already been established as a state can gain Observer status from the UN. I think this could be applicable to the Kurds in Northern Iraq, or the Northern Council in Italy or even the people of Catalonia from Spain. These are all independent groups of people who want freedom from the country they currently preside in, however they don't gain Observer status form the UN.

I understand that Palestine was once a state, but as we have talked about in class borders are arbitrary, often drawn by colonial powers to strategic purposes. Who is to say that long ago the people of Catalonia or the Kurds of Iraq didn't once have their own state but due to borders are now confined and chained to an arbitrary state.

I also think it is interesting that the United States threaten to pull foreign aid from Palestine if they ever applied for a higher status in the UN. However when Palestine did apply Congress threatened to pull the aid and then the President requested they didn't. Also quite humorous was I thought some of the article titles regarding the elevated status of Palestine. Many writers referred to this as a blow to the U.S. and to Israel. I agree with it being a blow to Israel but to the U.S. not so much. The U.S. still has the veto power, so therefore Palestine will never reach higher than observer status (unless there is a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict).