UN Votes to Recognize Palestine as a Non-Member State

Another shinning example of 'Smart Diplomacy'...

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/29/un-votes-to-recognize-palestine-as-non-member-state

"This has more to do with Palestinian infighting than it does with Israel, and it’s highly likely to backfire. Which means it’s no different from 90 percent of Palestinian political gambits.

You know the UN motto: You can never have too many Israel-hating pro-terrorist states.

[T]he vote offered a showcase for an extraordinary international lineup of support for the Palestinians and constituted a deeply symbolic achievement for their cause, made even weightier by arriving on the 65th anniversary of the General Assembly vote that divided the former British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab — a vote that Israel considers the international seal of approval for its birth…

A major concern for the Americans is that the Palestinians might use their new status to try to join the International Criminal Court. That prospect particularly worries the Israelis, who fear that the Palestinians might press for an investigation of their practices in the occupied territories.

Another worry is that the Palestinians might use the vote to seek membership in specialized agencies of the United Nations, a move that could have consequences for the financing of the international organizations as well as the Palestinian Authority itself. Congress cut off financing to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as Unesco, in 2011 after it accepted Palestine as a member. The United States is a major contributor to many of these agencies and plays an active role on their governing boards.
The vote was 138-9 with 41 abstentions, and it was indeed the 65th anniversary of Arabs deciding that a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian one was a casus belli, not a “diplomatic solution.” So why’d they do it? Because, with his pal Mubarak swept away by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas enjoying a new shot of jihadi cred from its latest glorious futile skirmish with Israel, Mahmoud Abbas is a forgotten man in the Middle East. He’ll take this back to the West Bank as proof of his stature, which is one of the reasons why some western nations voted for statehood (or abstained). They’re handing him a counterweight, in theory, against Hamas in the battle for Palestinian legitimacy. Just one problem: Who’s going to explain to the Palestinians back home that tonight’s vote achieved little more than the right to join UNESCO?
...
Long story short, Muslim regimes and the international left will soon have a new diplomatic tool with which to try to delegitimize Israel and the Palestinian project of ending the Zionist dream will continue to go nowhere."