The head shake heard ’round the world occurs around 1:50. As Bill Clinton found out, there can be no breakthrough if one side is coming to the table in bad faith. Clinton himself told Yasser Arafat: “A summit’s purpose is to have discussions that are based on sincere intentions and you, the Palestinians, did not come to this summit with sincere intentions.”
That was but one of 31 opportunities for statehood the Palestinian side has discarded, while Nabil Shaath now insists the UN spectacle is the “only alternative to violence.”
As we have noted before, the Palestinian Authority does seem to have calculated a win-win situation by forcing the issue at the UN: either they get what they want, or they get an excuse for another intifada, with all of the gratuitous invocations of the “Arab Spring” that are bound to accompany it.
“‘The only alternative is violence’: Palestinian fury after Obama urges them to drop U.N. independence bid,” by Mark Duell for the Daily Mail, September 21:
Barack Obama triggered fury among Palestinians tonight just hours after he pushed them to withdraw their United Nations independence bid.
Nabeel Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said after Mr Obama’s speech to the General Assembly in New York that going to the U.N. is the “˜only alternative to violence”.
During the President’s speech, a Palestinian representative was caught on television shaking his head when Mr Obama said the Palestinians and Israelis must learn to ‘see the world through the other’s eyes’.
Hours after Mr Obama’s address, a top Palestinian official said Mr Abbas had no plans to agree to a delayed vote on his bid for membership in the U.N. – rejecting mounting pressure from the U.S. and France.
The Palestinians plan to submit their application on Friday when Mr Abbas is to speak to the General Assembly, but he faced a withering lack of support as the world body opened its annual meeting.
Mr Obama said there could be no “˜shortcuts” in the quest for Middle East peace — but Mr Abbas”s senior aide Saeb Erekat stated: “˜We will not allow any political manoeuvring on this issue”. […]
The graphic show of displeasure by a Palestinian official at the speech will enrage White House aides who want to promote Mr Obama’s bid to play a central role in finding a Middle East breakthrough….