Palestinians consider UN ‘Vatican option’
In their quest for independence, statehood and a political victory at the UN this month, Palestinian officials are considering a formula that sounds strangely appropriate for the holy land: they call it the “Vatican option”.
The option implies asking the UN general assembly to upgrade the status of the Palestinian mission...[and] elevate the Palestinians to the same rank enjoyed by the Holy See.
...“It is an important shift from entity to state,” says Ammar Hijazi, a senior legal adviser to the Palestinian leadership. “The title ‘state’ will open all doors for us.”
However, one of the most important reasons why the “Vatican option” is the talk of diplomats in New York, Brussels and Ramallah is this: the status is awarded not by the exclusive UN Security Council but by the UN general assembly, a body where the Palestinians can normally be sure of majority support...
and what's the advantage?
This:
...the Vatican option offers a “golden mean” to resolve the UN dilemma: supporters argue it would deliver a small but much needed diplomatic victory to Mahmoud Abbas, the veteran leader of the Palestinian Authority. By skirting the US veto, it would also be less damaging to Washington and would therefore make it easier for the US administration to keep up the flow of aid money to the PA. Finally, the Vatican option has a much better chance of preventing a split between European countries, which are divided in their stance towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And I can recall the option of a "Vatican-like status" for the Temple Mount (*) but that wasn't acceptable to the Pals. So, now that like a "Vatican-style" state?
Abbas, et al., try the confessional booth.
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(*) and I am not referring to this:-
On the 10th of September, just three days before the signing of the Oslo Accords Washington, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres concluded a secret deal with the Vatican to hand over sovereignty of Jerusalem's Old City to the Vatican.
But this:
...on February 14th [2000], Pope John Paul 11 meets Arafat in Rome to sign an accord to normalize relations between Roman Catholic churches in Jerusalem and PA. Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei told The Jerusalem Post that the agreement is "recognition by the Catholic Church of the Palestinian claims to the eastern half of Jerusalem." According to Arafat's spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, "Arafat had been lobbying for the idea of sharing undivided Jerusalem, and for creating a Vatican-style sovereignty in the Old City." (Somehow we are supposed to believe that Arafat initiated this, and not the Vatican). The agreement calls for Jerusalem to be "an international city based on international resolutions and an international guarantee." The pack was signed despite the Vatican having signed an agreement with Israel six years earlier on December 30th, 1993 which gave legal jurisdiction under Israeli law over the Church's own institutions and assets in the Holy Land.
If you look at the map on her chest, you'll see the Pals. really have little room for Israel, anywhere:-
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