by Greg McDonald
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton blamed the Obama
administration for failing to block the U.N.'s defacto recognition
Thursday of a sovereign Palestinian state, saying the White House never
took the issue "seriously."
"This is a reflection of an ongoing failure by the Obama
administration to take this issue seriously," Bolton told Fox News's
Greta Van Susteren Thursday night, adding that the president should have
moved more forcefully in October, when the Palestinian Authority was
made a member of the U.N. and its affiliated organizations.
"It never should have been. Palestine is not a state," Bolton said.
"That's a fact. And when the U.N. engages in this kind of activity, it
just shows a real lack of administration commitment to stop it from
happening."
Bolton said the Obama administration could have taken a page from
the playbook of former Secretary of State James Baker more than two
decades ago when a similar effort to change the Palestinian Liberation
Organization's observer status at the U.N. from an "entity" to a
"non-member state," the same status held by the Vatican.
"We've been through this before. We did this 20 years ago and
defeated the Palestinians," Bolton said. "And this is how we did it.
Secretary of State Jim Baker issued a statement saying he would
recommend to the president that the United States make no further
contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization
which makes any change in the PLO's status as an observer organization.
"If the administration had simply done what Jim Baker did 20 years
ago, this thing would have been deader than a doornail," Bolton added.
The former ambassador, now a Fox News contributor, said he sees
plenty of trouble ahead as the United States, Israel and other nations
react to the new Palestinian status.
Pointing to Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has threatened
to introduce legislation to cut off U.N. aid, Bolton suggested that
other members of Congress could move as well to end funding for other
U.N.-affiliated groups with which the Palestinians can now claim
association.
He said Israel should also prepare seriously for a move by the
Palestinians to take complaints about Israel to the international
criminal court now that they have standing in the U.N.
He noted that it would be "a big mistake on their part" for Israel to downplay the problems that such a move could create.
Greg McDonald
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/palestinian-state-bolton/2012/11/30/id/465974
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment