UN vote nears

FORMER UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has written to all 650 MPs urging them to support Palestine's bid for UN recognition as an independent state which will probably come before the UN General Assembly for consideration next week.

Palestine can expect a majority of votes from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia but the United States has said it will veto the application if it reaches the Security Council for approval. In the European Union there is disagreement about the issue. Germany is opposed, France and Britain are thought to be favourably inclined to the Palestinian case but have not yet finally decided. Jack Straw's intervention is therefore very important because the UK view will be particularly influential. He wrote: “It is vital that the UK and other European countries have the courage to point the way forward by recognising a Palestine state alongside Israel and admitting it to the UN.” Meanwhile, the United States is pulling out all its diplomatic stops to try to block the Palestinian bid by persuading them to return to the negotiating table -- something they want to do, but as an independent state.

America's position is indefensible. Jack Straw points out that at the UN a year ago Barack Obama said he looked forward to welcoming “an independent sovereign state of Palestine to the UN in September 2011.”