Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to speak to the U.N. General Assembly next Friday could only be made after all the diplomatic efforts to return Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table were exhausted. On Wednesday, several vague formulas were presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but he feels committed to the U.N. option, so he sidestepped them. Some of the formulas were difficult for Israel to digest. One of them weighed the possibility -- not yet accepted in Jerusalem -- of adopting the 2001 Arab League initiative with the exception of its Right of Return clause, as well as possibly postponing discussion over the future of Jerusalem. But Ramallah is no longer on that page. It wants a futile U.N. deliberation, and even the racist remark by its U.S. ambassador that there is no room for Jews in Palestine has not derailed it. Anti-Semitism has become commonplace in the language of international diplomacy. By speaking at the U.N., Netanyahu is taking a gamble. On the one hand, he is taking the opportunity to present Israel's policy to the world, which will be watching the U.N. General Assembly and deserves to hear Israel's official position. On the other hand, his presence may whip up hostile countries into a display of vulgarity. Vulgarity has also become commonplace in the codes of etiquette and conduct of the international community. The assumption is that Israel has nothing to lose in the General Assembly. The Arabs carry an overwhelming majority. As Abba Eban once quipped, if the Arab bloc introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, the resolution would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions. The battle in the U.N. is lost, but the details do matter. If European countries, along with Australia and Canada, water down the approval of Palestinians' resolution, then a tiny window for future dialogue remains open. But if the Palestinians insist on the 1967 borders, that is additional proof that they have abandoned dialogue and seek to force a problematic settlement on Israel. In the two and a half years since the current government took power, Netanyahu and Abbas have seldom met. There is a point to Israel's demand that it be recognized as a Jewish state. If you listen carefully to Palestinian speakers, along with their local supporters in Israel, you will notice they never mention the Jewish people but rather the Israeli people. This is intentional. Nevertheless, precisely because Israel's leadership is not convinced that Abbas wants peace, perhaps we should have given him some rope and dropped the preliminary demand that Israel be recognized as Jewish (even though it is important to point out that Netanyahu did not make it a precondition for negotiations). Yet more evidence of a darkening September.
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