I didn't think this would happen in my lifetime, on Israel's 65th birthday no less. seems like a slap in the face to me. Is this good, bad? Why?
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-win- ... 20090.html
wow, looks like world polotics has evaded the US
wow, looks like world polotics has evaded the US
How you compare may not be as important as to whom you are compared
Re: wow, looks like world polotics has evaded the US
I have a concentration in Middle Eastern History with a specific focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict- without going in to a whole crazy long essay-like post all I have to say is that this has been a long time coming and it's not so much a slap in the face to Israel as a "hey guys, we should have done this 65 years ago, we're sorry". The Yahoo news report is inaccurate. Palestine has been granted non-member observer status. What this basically means is that they can now go into peace-talks officially, discuss borders, treaties, refugees, foreign-aid, etc. Israel denied to go into any peace talks whatsoever with Palestinians because they were represented by "terrorist" groups like Hamas, the PLO, the PLN, etc. That is why any situation where Israel and whatever organization represented palestinians at that time would meet together in peace talks was so monumental (camp David, etc.). Now that Palestine has been granted recognition by the UN, Israel will have no excuse not to go into peace talks with the Palestinians. If this is really something you are interested in- you should check out: Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict by Smith which gives a good introduction to the topic; A Concise History of the Middle East by Goldschmidt and Davidson ( gives a broader view of the surrounding issues plaguing the middle east besides just the A-I C) and any of the works by Ilan Pappe (the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, in particular, is excellent). I have all of these and am willing to lend them out if you actually want to read them.