James Besser’s article, “Block Statehood Bid Aggressively, Groups Urge U.S.” (April 22), relates the growing pressure on President Barack Obama to block the efforts of the Palestinian Authority this September to unilaterally declare a state at the United Nations. Besser actually seems to express sympathy for Obama in that he has so many battles to fight, and now he has this additional one.
No need to feel sorry for the U.S. president. Besser should have instead pointed out that it was Obama who went to the United Nations last September and spoke optimistically about the PA state that would be created by September 2011. In the Arab world, that was taken as a promise.
That is why there is no doubt that the Arabs will leapfrog over the Security Council, where Obama might feel forced to exercise a veto over the unilateral action, and go directly to the General Assembly, filled with Arab sympathizers, who have already expressed their support for a PA state inside of Israel.
It doesn’t matter that the General Assembly resolution will have no enforcement ability. The anti-Israel sentiment, the Islamization that is taking hold worldwide and the pro-PA sympathy that exists inexplicably in a world that doesn’t seem to react to Arab terror against Israeli citizens, will suffice to squeeze Israel into an intolerable bind.
The Jewish groups that are raising their voices now should have begun screaming last September when Obama laid his cards on the table. The Arab world was emboldened by the words and the silence following them. They will not be stopped now.
Helen Freedman
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