At
UN
on Palestine,
Lobbying Works
Both Ways,
Goodluck to
All
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28
-- After a meeting on
Palestine mere
minutes in
length,
Israeli
Permanent
Representative
Ron Prosor and
Palestinian
Permanent
Observer Riyad
Mansour both
spoke to the
press.
Mansour
said, in
essence, look
how many
meetings:
Monday,
Wednesday and
Friday as the
first meeting
of the
committee "at
the Ambassador
level" on
Palestine's
application.
He
said that
Israel's
Netanyahu
government
announcing
1100 new
settlement
housing units
was 1100
"no's"
to peace.
Inner City
Press asked
Mansour for
the response
to the
Quartet
Statement,
which he'd
said would be
Wednesday.
You
will hear from
Ramallah,
Mansour said
and left the
stakeout.
Prosor took
his place
and said
again, by way
of opening,
that Jerusalem
was the
capital of
the Jewish
people while
London was
still a swamp.
(Prosor began
using this
line when he
was Israeli
Ambassador to
the UK -- some
think he
should update
his material.)
Goodluck
Jonathan and
Hillary
Clinton,
abstention not
shown
Inner City
Press
asked him for
his Security
Council vote
count for
Palestinian UN
membership,
and if Israel
is lobbying
Gabon, Nigeria
and Bosnia, at
least the
Republica
Srbska
portion.
Prosor
cited US
President
Obama that
"through the
Security
Council,
Palestine will
not become the
194th member
state," then
acknowledged
that Israel,
too, is
lobbying:
"truthfully,
we are both
working."
One step was
Ehud Barak
meeting with
Nigeria's
Goodluck
Jonathan. Some
think it was
an error to
come out of
the meeting
bragging that
Nigeria would
abstain, and
talking about
meeting with
Nigeria's oil
minister. But
to each his
own.
Game on.
, 
