Should the US veto a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Rome yesterday seeking assurances from US Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington would block any UN Security Council resolutions on Palestinian statehood or the peace process. After the meeting though, Netanyahu declined to comment on whether he was given an assurance by Kerry that the US would exercise its veto.

Gilead Sher, former Chief of Staff and Policy Coordinator to Israel’s former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer there is a last-ditch effort going on to coordinate Israeli, American, and allied responses to the question of Palestinian statehood and the peace process. If that fails, the US will have no choice but to exercise its veto.

After the US-sponsored, Kerry-led talks failed, Sher says, the US could have publicly laid out the parameters that had already been established for a deal between Israel and the Palestinians. This could have prepared firmer ground on which to build a UN Security Council resolution on Palestinian statehood. It would also have fostered a more positive diplomatic environment in which Israel could operate. Sher believes it is not too late to take this route.

Sher would like to see Israel initiate a round of multi-lateral, regional talks, drawing on Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others as parters for peace. These talks would be a platform for resuming bilateral talks with the Palestinians, and at the same time Israel could unilaterally delineate some workable borders.

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