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Ever since outgoing Middle East envoy George Mitchell used the phrase "train wreck'' with Charlie Rose in May, it has become jargon for what will happen in September when the Palestinian leadership goes to the United Nations seeking "full membership for the state of Palestine." The Netanyahu government is so gravely threatened that it has made opposition to the UN affirmation of Palestinian independence a litmus test of loyalty to Israel. A catastrophe looms.
The Obama administration has announced its intention to use its Security Council veto to derail any such resolution, and both houses of the US Congress have, with near unanimity, condemned the Palestinian approach to the UN as "unilateral" and a "circumvention of direct negotiations," a death knell for the peace process. Yet consider another possibility: Instead of denouncing the pro-Palestinian UN resolution, Israel should announce its intention to support it.
Instead of a train wreck, a peace train. Against its critics, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat insisted last week that the UN bid "will preserve the peace process and the two-state solution." Why not see it that way? A means of moving the two parties out of stalemate, and toward the well-understood endgame of compromise and co-existence. "Now that you are recognized as the state you are," Israel could say, in effect, "Let's make it real by promptly settling the outstanding issues."
