Yet again, the Los Angeles Times gives a platform to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook who argues that this September at the United Nations “Palestinians will chart their own course, and there is nothing that the United States or Israel can do to stop it.”
John Bolton, whose Op-Ed is paired with Abu Marzook’s, ably counters the Hamas man’s claims. The former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. writes:
An aversion to reality can be a powerfully destructive force. . . .
First, neither the Security Council nor the General Assembly has the legal authority to declare statehood. The U.N.’s website says candidly that the world body “does not possess any authority to recognize either a state or a government.” Attempting to ram such a declaration through is not merely improper but destructive of the U.N. itself.
Some, however, argue that there is precedent, citing General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947, which endorsed a plan to partition the former British League of Nations mandate into Jewish and Arab states, and a “special international regime” for Jerusalem. They should read what the resolution actually says. Like all assembly resolutions, it is not legally binding. It simply “recommends” the partition plan in question, and “requests that the Security Council take the necessary measures” to implement it. The council never adopted the plan. Although the Jewish leadership accepted it, the Arabs did not, and a multi-front Arab assault followed. End of precedent.
(Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Sha’ath, who just threatened to push the U.N. to implement Resolution 181 should the bid for statehood fail, should take note.) Bolton goes on:
Second, whatever serious political work is done at the U.N. is done by the Security Council, where the veto of the five permanent members — the United States, France, China, Britain and Russia — gives them predominance.
(For more on the Palestinian attempt to achieve statehood through the U.N., see here.)