UNITED NATIONS: Palestinians are pressing the UN Security Council to pass a simmering resolution that they say attacks the “cancer” of Israel's occupied-territory settlements but which many diplomats see also targeting the United States. The deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace process was not mentioned in US President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech this week and the Palestinians and others want to know what the US Middle East strategy is. They feel “abandoned,” said one diplomat at the UN headquarters. The resolution, now before the council's 15 members and waiting for Arab foreign ministers to set the date to press for a vote, condemns Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That is the policy of the United Nations, United States and most countries in the world. But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has opposed the resolution, while insisting that the peace process remains the “number one” US priority. Diplomats say the US administration will use its veto privilege as one of five permanent members of the Security Council, keeping up its traditional defense of Israel. Palestinians have rejected US-brokered talks with Israel since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a settlement moratorium that expired on Sept. 28. Riyad Mansour, Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, called the thousands of new Israeli homes planned in the occupied territories “a cancer that is overtaking the body of the West Bank.” – Agence France
