STF NA MÍDIA

Israel s ambassador to the
US, said that his country had
a lot of agreements with the
PA but none with a "government
of Palestine", his
comments were taken as a
threat to agreements on which
thousands of Palestinian
households depend, not least
the transfer of funds that Israel
collects on behalf of the
PA. All this mayhem for
what – a virtual state?
It is, however, an even worse
option not to go to the UN.
This was made clear on Friday
by Nabil Shaath, a senior
Palestinian official. He revealed
the "compromise"
they had been pressed to
sign, drawn up by Tony Blair,
the representative of the
Quartet. It called on the Palestinians
to accept Israeli
settlement growth, call Israel
a Jewish state, and tear up
the agreement with Hamas.
The first would make any
real negotiation on land
swaps impossible. The second
would pre-empt discussion
on the right of return for
Palestinian refugees and cast
Israeli Arabs into the wilderness.
The third would relaunch
the conflict with Hamas.
And that is before any discussion
started with Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Shaath put it
correctly: Mr Blair, he said,
sounded more like an Israeli
diplomat than a neutral one.
This crisis is doing any future
negotiators a favour in
showing how skewed the
process has become. The bar
of success is continually being
raised rather than lowered.
The demand that Israel
be recognised explicitly as a
Jewish state was not made in
previous rounds of negotiations.
Similarly, the last Israeli
premier, Ehud Olmert, was
prepared to talk about a symbolic
return of Palestinian
refugees. His successor refuses
to let one refugee back –
not even Mahmoud Abbas, a
refugee himself.
Israel will only lower the bar
of success if the cost of its
occupation goes up. That
price is already being raised
by what is happening in
Egypt, Jordan and Turkey,
and it will go up further if Mr
Abbas continues to call the
US s bluff. The US will try
hard this week to avoid a
veto in the UN security
council, because it would be
vetoing its own policy. But it
is worse than that. There is
little Washington can do to
penalise Mr Abbas without
weakening every structure it
has been trying to build in
the West Bank. It wants to
keep the prime minister, Salam
Fayyad, in place. Do you
encourage him to stay by
cutting off his funds? If that
lever does not work, what
lever does? Barack Obama
has said in two speeches that
America would veto a UN
bid, and Mr Abbas is defying
him. Contrast that to what
happened over the Goldstone
report, when Mr Abbas was
forced to drop his support for
a report that was critical of
the Gaza war. A fresh wind
is blowing through the Middle
East – one with which the
US has still to come to terms.
Packing Heat Everywhere
JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE NEW YORK TIMES (US) • EDITORIALS, OP-ED AND LED • 18/9/2011
Some bad ideas refuse to die.
Include in that category an
extreme proposal percolating
in the House to strip states of
their authority to decide who
may carry a concealed loaded
firearm. This gift to the gun
lobby, the subject of a hearing
last week by a House
Judiciary subcommittee, is
nearly identical to a provision
the Senate defeated by a
narrow margin two years
ago.
Every state but Illinois makes
some allowance for concealed
weapons. The eligibility
rules vary widely and each
state decides whether to honor
another state’s permits.
For example, 38 states prohibit
people convicted of certa-
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