"Um, Shmum," Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion famously said, manipulating the Hebrew acronym for the United Nations to point out the institution's irrelevance. Ben-Gurion was most likely just bantering. Or maybe he just lost his temper. In any event, in practice, he never played down the U.N.'s impact on the Middle East and Israel. U.N. Security Council resolutions are the bread and butter of Middle East diplomacy. Some say they are like crutches. That is, no diplomatic initiative can move forward (or backward) without their support. Some believe they are like a car's engine, jump-starting activity when there is a diplomatic impasse. Every diplomatic step taken in this region since Nov. 22, 1967, has used U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 as a guide. The first followed the 1967 Six-Day War, the second heralded the end of the Yom Kippur War six years later. Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin once noted that unlike communiqu s and joint statements at the end of international conferences, U.N. Security Council resolutions are "irreversible." How the Palestinians' latest U.N. bid will unfold is anyone's guess, but it may ultimately inflict significant damage on Israel. For some time now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that he is going to pull the trigger, using the only bullet he has left. If he submits the draft resolution calling for an end to the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, he will have increased Israel's reliance on the U.S.'s veto power. This will hold true even if he chooses to embrace the watered-down versions drafted by the French and British delegations. What's worse, it appears that the Obama administration is considering breaking from precedent by not vetoing the resolution. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged from his talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, he was unable to confirm that the U.S. was going to use its veto power. That raised some concerns. The Palestinian move is the culmination of the creeping Palestinian boycott against settlement manufacturers. The goal is to portray the settlers as outcasts and to ultimately hurt Israel's economy. This is bound to poison relations between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The timing of this U.N. maneuver is less than optimal, as Israel's two political blocs are currently waging a bitter campaign against each other and amongst themselves. Abbas will have essentially stepped into the election fray if he moves forward with this draft resolution. Unless the U.S. and France manage to kick the can down the road, this bid will become an election issue in Israel. Netanyahu will ask Israelis to rally around the flag in an effort to fend off Western-Palestinian pressure. Over at Labor, Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog will blame Abbas for eroding Israel's standing on the world stage. How this unfolds is anyone's guess.
