I

do hope Indonesia will support Palestine’s upcoming bid for the United Nations to recognize Palestine as an independent state within 1967 borders.

Currently the Palestine Liberation Organization has only observer status at the UN, and while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would prefer to reach UN sanctioned statehood through negotiations, many decades of attempts at peace talks have failed to find a solution to the ongoing Palestine/Israel problem.

The 15 member UN Security Council needs to recommend statehood to the UN General Assembly, where a vote on membership is expected on September 20, 2011.

Approval of Palestinian statehood would then require 128 votes from member nations, although Palestine is hopeful of support from at least 150 members.

The US is the main obstacle to a General Assembly vote as it has veto power as a permanent Security Council member; however the Palestinians are hoping the US will abstain.

Indonesia could very well use its strategic position as a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious democracy to put that point of view to the US.

Perhaps citizens of other nations reading this can also request their governments support statehood for Palestine with the US either approving, or at the very least, abstaining.

The US should take the wider view that apart from their very best efforts to negotiate a peace agreement over the decades, including US president Obama’s most recent plan, their efforts have failed to deliver such an agreement.

Greg Warner
Bali