Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas is considering launching a second attempt at upgrading the status of the Palestinians in the United Nations from an observer entity to a non-member observer.
With an upgraded status, the Palestinians would be able to vote in the UN General Assembly and seek full membership in UN organizations and at the International Criminal Court.
The upgrade would also likely to help define the borders of a Palestinian state as containing the entire West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Israel and the United States opposed Abbas' first bid last year, arguing that the borders can only be settled via negotiations toward a peace agreement.
Abbas needs to sway the Americans from using their veto in the UN Security Council, which U.S. President Barack Obama threatened to use against the Palestinian bid last year, Prof. Mohammed Dajani, of Al-Quds University, told Xinhua Wednesday.
Dajani argued that what Abbas needs to do "is to prepare the ground by talking to the Israelis first, because the key is the Israelis -- not the Americans."
"The Americans are following the Israeli lead, so there should be some discussions with the Israelis and the Americans in order to pave the way," Dajani said.
In addition to the U.S. veto, Abbas needs to overcome another hurdle before a possible vote in the Security Council. According to UN rules, in order for an entity to be recognized as a state, it needs to have one recognized government which is in control of all its territory.
However, after the Islamic Hamas movement threw out Abbas' Fatah party from Gaza in 2007, there have been two de facto Palestinian governments, one under the leadership of Fatah in the West Bank and one led by Hamas in Gaza. Each views itself as the legitimate center of power.
Several attempts have been made by the Palestinians to form a unity government and to hold elections. In May 2011, Fatah and Hamas signed an accord which called for a new government to be established by May 2012.
However, negotiations on the makeup of the unity government have stalled and elections appear far off.
Shlomo Brom, of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that the Palestinians' second bid will not change anything either at the world body or on the ground.
Brom argued that the Israeli government could use the bid to influence public opinion toward the idea that Israel is not the one that make peace negotiations a stalemate.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have not moved forward after September 2010 when a ten-month Israeli freeze on settlement construction ended.
"Probably, the Israeli government will take some punishing steps vis-a-vis the Palestinians as they did last time, mainly in the economic area," Brom said.
"The PNA is now in real financial trouble, so they need orderly transfers of taxes collected by Israel," he added.
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