Political India: Engaging America

United States President Barack Obama found himself in a serious quandary this week after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to pressure the United Nations Security Council to recognise U.N. membership for the state of Palestine — a step that the U.S. President has consistently warned Mr. Abbas' government against.

Although Mr. Obama has struggled since the early days of his time in office to bring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the negotiating table with Mr. Abbas, direct negotiations never took off.

With Mr. Abbas promising to take the matter to the highest U.N. body on Friday, the U.S. now risks having to make good on its promise to use its Security Council veto — a move that is likely to be highly unpopular throughout the Middle East.

While Mr. Obama has been reluctant to adopt the laissez-faire approach of his predecessor towards pressuring Israel to engage in negotiations, the White House has had to contend with the public embarrassment of Mr. Netanyahu's truculence.

Despite the Obama government's repeated call to cease settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, new construction has been authorised by Israel on several occasions.

Further, Mr. Obama had earlier this year sought to suggest that any final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians would involve a return to the borders that prevailed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. In response Mr. Netanyahu publicly gave Mr. Obama a “lecture” on Jewish historical claims in the Middle East and the Arab threat and, “The President was furious at the humiliation and the administration made it known in private,” according to some media reports.

Some experts argue that at the heart of the dilemma lies the fact that the Jewish community in the U.S. and their lobbyists on Capitol Hill are a powerful force to contend with, especially for a President who is as close to kicking off his re-election campaign as Mr. Obama is.