Despite 'Skepticism,' Blair Nudges Netanyahu on Talks

Palestine condemns move

(NEWSER) - In a move sure to ratchet up Israeli-Palestinian tension even further, Israel gave the OK today to construct 1,100 new housing units in east Jerusalem. Israel’s Interior Ministry says construction can begin after 60 days, a period that is mandatory for comments from the public but largely a formality, the AP reports. While the Palestinians say east Jerusalem is their future capital, and have called for a halt to all settlement construction there, Israel says the area is a part of its own capital, an undivided Jerusalem. More»

Statehood resolution doesn't have votes to pass

(NEWSER) - Palestine won’t push for an immediate Security Council vote on its push for full UN membership, because it doesn’t appear to have the requisite nine votes—even if the US weren’t promising to veto the move. “We will give some time to the Security Council,” a Palestinian negotiator told reporters, according to Bloomberg . “If we fail, we will keep knocking on the door. We do not have a time limit." More»

Mahmoud Abbas would submit a letter, but not force a vote

(NEWSER) - The international community is hammering out a deal that would spare the US from having to veto Palestine’s move for statehood . There are several ideas floating about, but all revolve around the premise that Mahmoud Abbas would deliver a letter to the Security Council requesting statehood, but would not actually force a vote, US, European, Israeli and Palestinian diplomats tell CNN . “We don’t need to see a vote right away,” one Palestinian diplomat said. More»

Palestinian leader says he needs world to 'recognize the occupation'

(NEWSER) - It’s official: Mahmoud Abbas will demand full UN membership from the Security Council next week, despite an almost certain veto from the US. Abbas formally committed to the gambit for the first time in a speech today, the New York Times reports, saying that “We need a state, a seat at the United Nations, and nothing more.” The US had hoped it could talk Abbas out of the move. More»

If Palestinians wait much longer, it will be too late: Reza Aslan

(NEWSER) - Palestinians plan to push for full statehood in the UN later this month, and the US vows to block them. Reza Aslan offers five reasons in the Los Angeles Times why America should buck Israel ("it is not political suicide") and change its mind:

• Failed talks: Twenty years of negotiations toward a Palestinian state have gone nowhere, even as the number of Israelis in the West Bank has tripled in that time to 300,000. "A few more years and practically nothing will remain."