Bucharest International Student MUN 2013

Security Council Study Guide on Topic Area B

The Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestine Question

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction................................................................................................3

2. The Middle East.........................................................................................4

3. The Palestine Question...............................................................................6

4. Conflicts in the Middle East......................................................................8

5. Syrian uprising...........................................................................................10

6. The UN and the Middle East....................................................................12

7. Palestinian Progress...................................................................................17

8. Conclusion..................................................................................................19

9. Bibliography...............................................................................................20

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Introduction

If nothing else, then recent occurrences in the Middle

East has made it of crucial importance that the issues

and situations surrounding that geographical region

should not only be discussed, analyzed and

deliberated upon, but as quickly and speedily as

possible, should be resolved. However, the resolution

of such a situation, as we might have learnt from the

past, is not all that’s needed. A precise yet flexible,

effective and sustainable framework is also needed to

ensure that situations of this likes become a thing of

the past.

At every point in time in history when chaotic and riotous events daunted and threatened the

security and stability of communities, countries or even regions as in the case of the Middle East,

the Security Council of the United Nations takes it upon itself as its responsibility to ensure that

security and stability are not only upheld, but restored where needed. Numerous resolutions

passed by the Security Council in time past and the effective execution of the clauses of these

resolutions, have gone a long way in ensuring the security, stability and in most cases,

sustainable growth in regions which seemed to have been languished by the bitterness and utter

destructiveness of minor or sometimes major security issues. This in no way means that the

Security Council has been entirely successful as a unit of the United Nations, on the other hand,

it’s a simple affirmation of the fact that, the responsibility of the Security Council, and its ability

to assume the role of Peace maker in today’s conflict ridden world, is extremely important for

the maintenance of not just law and other, but security and stability.

Haven considered all these (the role of the Security Council as a peace, security and stability

promoting institution of the United Nations and the recent occurrences in the Middle East) the

decision of choosing a topic for the Security Council at this year’s BISMUN conference was a

pretty easy one.

The situation in the Middle East could be concluded to be a very broad topic of discussion,

because from it, a million or even more questions could be raised, a few examples are; How can

the situation in Syria be brought to a final halt? What role should the Security Council assume in

this rampant uprising of the Middle East called the Arab Spring? How can the Security Council

help see to it that the Situation in Syria comes to a quick and bloodless end? Nonetheless, asides

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from all these questions, there’s also the Palestine question; out of which a few other questions

could be derived. Thus we have an accumulation of questions, all without any answer, as such,

the purpose of this study guide.

There’s no assurance whatsoever, that this study guide will provide any answers to any of these

questions, however, its aim would be to enlighten you all on the fundamental concept of the

respective topic, while also establishing a pattern or agenda that would and should endeavor

quality and justifiable answers to all the questions raised and those that might be raised.

To do this however, a basic and even more fundamental understanding of the rudiments of this

topic is required, the rudiments being, The Middle East, and The Palestine Question.

The Middle East

The Middle East as a geographic

location on the world atlas is

encompassed by Africa, Europe and

Asia. As a matter of fact, it is said to

be the link between the three

continents. It comprises of 17

countries, predominantly Muslim

countries in which Arabic is the

major language. They include:

Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,

Syria, United Arab Emirates, Jordan,

Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and

the Palestinian territories. Others

include the Persian speaking state of

Iran, Turkish and Greek speaking

Cyprus, Turkey, and Bahrain.

The largest ethnic groups in the

Middle East are the Arabs; there are also Turks, Turkomans, Persians, Kurds Azeris, Copts,

Jews, Maronites, Assyro-Chaldeans, Circassians, Armenians, Druze and numerous other ethnic

groups forming other significant populations.

The history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, and throughout its history, the Middle

East has been a major center of world affairs. When discussing ancient history, however, the

term Near East is more commonly used. The Middle East is also the historical origin of major

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religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as the less common Baha'i

faith, Mandaeism, Druze faith and others. The Middle East generally has an arid and hot climate,

with several major rivers providing for irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas,

especially in Mesopotamia and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. Many countries located around

the Persian Gulf have large quantities of crude oil, which has resulted in much wealth

particularly for nations in the Arabian Peninsula. In modern times the Middle East remains a

strategically, economically, politically, culturally and religiously sensitive region.

Here is a very short overview of the modern history of the Middle East, brought up to date:

19th

century – Jewish Zionists immigrate to Palestine to join Jewish communities

1918 Ottoman Empire collapses, League of Nations puts Palestine under British Mandate, who

gives conflicting promises of independence to Jews & Arabs, who develop nationalistic

ambitions; Balfour Declaration of 1917 said Jewish National Home originally included Jordan,

but in 1922 was divided to only include area west of Jordan River

1948 UN partition plan resulted in Israel declaring independence; rejected by Arabs who

declared war on Israel and were defeated, to their humiliation

1963 PLO, created by Arab League, represents Palestinians to provoke Arab world to

destroy Israel

1967 Six-Day War gives Israel West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Sinai; creates Palestinian

refugees; UN Resolution 242 called for peace based on return of captured territories—Arabs

have done nothing but still expect Israel to return land

1968 Yasser Arafat, leader of Fatah terrorist group in the PLO, politically perceptive yet ruthless

dictator, becomes chairman; transforms from pure terrorist to a political organization with

perceived legitimate cause.

1979 Camp David accords; Egypt & Israel sign treaty; Israel withdraws from Sinai

1987 PLO starts Intifada terrorist tactics to force Israel to retaliate; ancient Islamic strategy for

dealing with nations too strong to be defeated militarily

1993 Oslo Peace Process signed by Israel and PLO; Palestine National Authority (PA) created as

the legitimate governing entity of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who

receive autonomy in Jericho, Gaza, much of West Bank; but terrorism continues.

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1994 Arafat becomes president of Palestinian Authority, never renounces terrorist

tactics. Israel & Jordan sign peace treaty.

2000 Intifada resumed after Oslo process fails to produce diplomatic negotiations. Arafat rivals

are religious terrorist groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas, who believe the PA has betrayed the

cause by engaging in a peace process. However, the Israelis believe the PA is a haven for

terrorists and no longer look to Arafat and the PA as peace partners.

2001 9/11 begins attempt by Arab Muslim radicals to force a final confrontation between East

and West, fueled by arms race and weapons of mass destruction

2002 Israel begins building Security Wall approximately along old green line borders established

by the 1949 armistice agreement, before conquering the West Bank and Gaza. Purpose is to stop

terrorist infiltration with a physical barrier. Negative is that it also hinders flow of Palestinian

workers into Israeli territory.

2003 Road Map is US proposed plan for settlement of conflict by 2005 with an independent

Palestinian state and withdrawal from West Bank, Gaza & East Jerusalem; to be monitored by

US, UN, EU & Russia (the international “quartet”); requires PA to stop terrorism & Israel to

withdraw from settlements occupied since 2001. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA

Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas shook hands and pledged to fulfill the conditions of the Road

Map. Invasion of Iraq increases tension in the area, although focus is on US as an aggressor

rather than just a supporter of Israel. Quick collapse of Iraqi forces shocked the Arab world and

may have made the PA more open to gestures of democracy.

2004 Yasser Arafat dies, making way for more moderate leadership of the PA. Israeli –

Egyptian relations improve.

2005 Mahmoud Abbas elected president of PA. This longtime henchman of Arafat seems more

moderate and willing to work toward negotiated settlements. Preparations made by Sharon to

disengage from all Gaza settlements and from four West Bank settlements.

The Palestine Question

Is Palestine A State? That is the question-which question many International Law analysts have

christened as "The Palestinian Question".

In one sense, Palestine has been seen to share much in common with other states in the

international scene. However, and as is the case on the opposite arm of the debate, Palestine does

not carry with her all the identity features required by these states to fully form part of the static

community. Debates and historical analysis have thus sought to answer this.

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It is widely argued that a number of factors have weakened the momentum to solve the

Palestinian question: the split between the West Bank and Gaza, the fanaticism of Hamas, the

corruption of some Palestinian politicians. Another way to look at the same evidence is that these

Dangerous phenomena (split, corruption, fanaticism) are produced by the deterioration of the

Palestinian question itself.

If this is the case, the situation cannot be overcome either by denial, by repeating the same old

stories, or by feeding the Palestinians false promises - for all will result only in frustration.

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It is beyond doubt that the Palestinian question belongs to the world’s “national-liberation”

causes. The Palestinian’s aspiration to statehood is rightful and legal. But since the era of

colonialism itself is no more, it also looks like the only remnant of that time. Many claim that

colonialism has renewed itself through imperialism, though this is challenged on two grounds:

the economic success achieved by many Asian nations from within the framework of

“dependency”, and the fact that it is the very “imperial powers” that are always called to take the

lead in intervening to halt massacres or to stop despots in the non-western world. In these

circumstances, the Palestinian question could be said to have fallen into the deep gap between

the demise of national liberation and the failure of all efforts to sort it out in an acceptable way.

It can also be said, however, that the colonization and settlement-building to which the

Palestinians were subjugated took place in the second half of the 20th century - and is still taking

place in the 21st century. The fact that similar projects in North America, Australasia, and South

Africa occurred in earlier centuries makes the Palestinian situation unique. This argument is solid

theoretically, but has suffered from an enduring flaw that has proved an obstacle to the

Palestinians’ fulfillment of their right. This is that over the decades the Palestinians (and the

Arabs generally) viewed the colonization of Palestine in a one-dimensional and confining way,

rooted in the 20th century alone.

The situation now poses two, interrelated, questions. First, can the Palestinian cause, represented

by its forces and symbols, reinvent itself in a way that joins it to the new Arab revolutionary

spirit and aspirations? Second, can the new Arab conditions, to the extent they result in states

able to play a respectful, serious and credible role on the international stage, also activate their

moral responsibility toward the Palestinians and thus produce an acceptable and reasonable

solution to a seemingly intractable problem?

Conflicts in the Middle East

Arab Spring: The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protests,

and wars occurring in the Arab that began on 18 December 2010.

To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen; civil

uprisings have erupted in Bahrain and Syria; major protests have broken out

in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan; and minor protests have occurred

in Lebanon, Mauritania,Oman,Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Western Sahara.

There were border clashes in Israel in May 2011, and the protests in Iranian Khuzestan by

the Arab minority erupted in 2011 as well. Weapons and Tuareg fighters returning from

the Libyan civil war stoked a simmering conflict in Mali which has been described as "fallout"

from the Arab Spring in North Africa. The sectarian clashes in Lebanon were described as a

spillover violence of the Syrian uprising and hence the regional Arab Spring. In September 2012,

a wave of social protests by Palestinians demanded lower consumer prices and resignation of the

Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad.

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The protests have shared techniques of mostly civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving

strikes, demonstrations, marches, and rallies, as well as the effective use of social media to

organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression

and Internet censorship.

Many Arab Spring demonstrations have been met with violent responses from authorities, as

well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators. These attacks have been

answered with violence from protestors in some cases. A major slogan of the demonstrators in

the Arab world has been Ash-shabyuridisqat an-nizam ("the people want to bring down the

regime").

Some observers have drawn comparisons between the Arab Spring movements and

the Revolutions of 1989 (also known as the "autumn of Nations") that swept through Eastern

Europe and the Second World, in terms of their scale and significance. Others, however, have

pointed out that there are several key differences between the movements, such as the desired

outcomes and the organizational role of internet technology in the Arab revolutions.

The Arab spring is widely believed to have been instigated by dissatisfaction with the rule of

local governments, though some have speculated that wide gaps in income levels may have had a

hand as well.

Numerous factors have led to the protests, including issues such as dictatorship or absolute

monarchy, human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment,

extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors, such as a large percentage of

educated but dissatisfied youth within the population. Also, some, like Slovenian

philosopher SlavojŽižek attribute the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests as one of the reasons

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behind the Arab Spring. The Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010 might also have been one of the factors,

which influenced the beginning of the Arab Spring. The catalysts for the revolts in all Northern

African and countries have been the concentration of wealth in the hands of autocrats in power

for decades, insufficient transparency of its redistribution, corruption, and especially the refusal

of the youth to accept the status quo. Increasing food prices and global famine rates have also

been a significant factor, as they involve threats to food security worldwide and prices that

approach levels of the 2007–2008 world food price crisis.

In recent decades rising living standards and literacy rates, as well as the increased availability of

higher education, have resulted in an improved Human Development Index in the affected

countries. The tension between rising aspirations and a lack of government reform may have

been a contributing factor in all of the protests. Many of the Internet-savvy youth of these

countries have, increasingly over the years, been viewing autocrats and absolute monarchies

as anachronisms. A university professor of Oman, Al-NajmaZidjaly referred to this upheaval

as youth quake.

Tunisia and Egypt, the first to witness major uprisings, differ from other North African and

Middle Eastern nations such as Algeria and Libya in that they lack significant oil revenue, and

were thus unable to make concessions to calm the masses.

The relative success of the democratic Republic of Turkey, with its substantially free and

vigorously contested but peaceful elections, fast-growing but liberal economy, secular

constitution butIslamist government, created a model (the Turkish model) if not a motivation for

protestors in neighboring states.

Syrian Uprising

Protests in Syria started on 26 January 2011, when a

police officer assaulted a man in public at "Al-

Hareeka Street" in old Damascus. The man was

arrested right after the assault. As a result, protesters

called for the freedom of the arrested man. Soon a

"day of rage" was set for 4–5 February, but it was

uneventful. On 6 March, the Syrian security forces

arrested about 15 children in Daraa, in southern

Syria, for writing slogans against the government.

Soon protests erupted over the arrest and abuse of

the children. Daraa was to be the first city to protest against the Baathist regime, which has been

ruling Syria since 1963.

Thousands of protestors gathered in Damascus, Aleppo, al-Hasakah, Daraa, Deirez-Zor,

and Hama on 15 March, with recently released politician SuhairAtassi becoming an unofficial

spokesperson for the "Syrian revolution". The next day there were reports of approximately 3000

arrests and a few martyrs, but there are no official figures on the number of deaths. On 18 April

2011, approximately 100,000 protesters sat in the central Square of Homs calling for the

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resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Protests continued through July 2011, the government

responding with harsh security clampdowns and military operations in several districts,

especially in the north.

On 31 July, Syrian army tanks stormed several cities, including Hama, DeirEz-Zour, Abu Kamal,

and Herak near Daraa. At least 136 people were killed in the most violent and bloody day since

the uprising started.

On 5 August 2011, an anti-government demonstration took place in Syria called "God is with

us", during which the Syrian security forces shot the protesters from inside the ambulances,

killing 11 people consequently.

By late November – early December, the Baba Amr district of Homs fell under armed Syrian

opposition control. By late December, the battles between the government's security forces and

the rebel Free Syrian Army intensified in Idlib Governorate. Cities in Idlib and neighborhoods in

Homs and Hama began falling into the control of the opposition, during this time military

operations in Homs and Hama ceased and stopped.

By mid-January the FSA gained control over Zabadani and Madaya. By late January, the Free

Syrian Army launched a full-scale attack against the government in Rif Dimashq, where they

took over Saqba, Hamoreya, Harasta and other cities in Damascus's Eastern suburbs. On 29

January, the fourth regiment of the Syrian Army led by the president's brother Maher al-

Assad and the Syrian Army dug in at Damascus, and the fighting continued where the FSA was

8 km away from the Republican palace in Damascus. Fighting broke out near Damascus

international airport, but by the next day the Syrian government deployed the Republican

Guards. The military gained the upper hand and regained all land the opposition gained in Rif

Dimashq by early February. On 4 February, the Syrian Army launched a massive bombardment

on Homs and committed a huge massacre, killing 500 civilians in one night in Homs. By mid-

February, the Syrian army regained control over Zabadani and Madaya. In late February, Army

forces entered Baba Amro after a big military operation and heavy fighting. Following this, the

opposition forces began losing neighborhoods in Homs to the Syrian Army including al-Inshaat,

Jobr, Karm el-Zaytoon and only Homs's old neighborhoods, including Al-Khalidiya, Homs|al-

Khalidiya, remained in opposition hands.

By March 2012, the government began military operations against the opposition in Idlib

Governorate including the city of Idlib, which fell to the Army by mid-

March. Saraqib and Sarmin were also recaptured by the government during the month. Still, at

this time, the opposition managed to capture al-Qusayr and Rastan. Heavy fighting also

continued in several neighborhoods in Homs and in the city of Hama. The FSA also started to

conduct hit-and-run attacks in the pro-Assad Aleppo Governorate, which they were not able to

do before. Heavy-to-sporadic fighting was also continuing in the Daraa and Deirez-

Zor Governorates.

By late April 2012, despite a cease-fire being declared in the whole country, sporadic fighting

continued, with heavy clashes specifically in Al-Qusayr, where rebel forces controlled the

northern part of the city, while the military held the southern part. FSA forces were holding onto

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Al-Qusayr, due to it being the last major transit point toward the Lebanese border. A rebel

commander from the Farouq Brigade in the town reported that 2,000 Farouq fighters had been

killed in Homs province since August 2011. At this point, there were talks among the rebels in

Al-Qusayr, where many of the retreating rebels from Homs city's Baba Amr district had gone, of

Homs being abandoned completely. On 12 June 2012, the UN peacekeeping chief in Syria stated

that, in his view, Syria has entered a period of civil war.

The United Nations and Syria

This news article from New York Times published on the fourth of February gives an in-depth

view to the United Nations effort in Syria.

“A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria collapsed in acrimony

with a double veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the

city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the deadliest government assault in the

nearly 11-month uprising.

The veto and the mounting violence underlined the dynamics shaping what is proving to be the

Arab world’s bloodiest revolt: diplomatic stalemate and failure as Syria plunges deeper into what

many are already calling a civil war. Diplomats have lamented their lack of options in pressuring

the Syrian government, and even some Syrian dissidents worry about what the growing

confrontation will mean for a country reeling from bloodshed and hardship.

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The veto is almost sure to embolden the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which

brazenly carried out the assault on Homs on the day that the Security Council had planned to

vote. It came, too, around the anniversary of its crackdown in 1982 on another Syrian city,

Hama, by Mr. Assad’s father, Hafez, in which at least 10,000 people were killed in one of the

bloodiest episodes in modern Arab history.“It’s quite clear — this is a license to do more of the

same and worse,” said Peter Harling, an expert on Syria at the International Crisis Group. “The

regime will take it for granted that it can escalate further. We’re entering a new phase that will be

far more violent still than what we’ve seen now.”

The Security Council voted 13 to 2 in favor of a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan

for Syria, but passage was blocked by Russia and China, which opposed what they saw as a

potential violation of Syria’s sovereignty. The support of those countries has proved crucial in

bolstering the Syrian government’s confidence, despite an isolation more pronounced than any

time since the Assad family seized power more than four decades ago.After the vote, and the

failure before that of the Arab League peace plan to stem the violence, predictions were grim

about what is ahead in a conflict that the United Nations says has claimed more than 5,000 lives.

To many, two inexorable forces were at work: a government bent on crushing the uprising by

force and an opposition that, if not increasing in numbers, appeared to be growing even more

determined.“What more do we need to know to act decisively in the Security Council?”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton fumed at a news conference in Munich. “To block

this resolution is to bear responsibility for the horrors that are occurring on the ground in

Syria.”Responding to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, who asked, “What’s the

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endgame?” Mrs. Clinton replied: “The endgame in the absence of us acting together as the

international community, I fear, is civil war.”The attack in Homs, where Syrian opposition

leaders said more than 200 people were killed, drew outrage from around the world and

intensified pressure on the Security Council to act.

President Obama condemned what he called “the Syrian government’s unspeakable assault

against the people of Homs,” saying in a statement that Mr. Assad “has no right to lead Syria,

and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community.” He accused Syria

of having “murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children.”

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said, “The massacre in Homs is a crime against

humanity, and those responsible will have to answer for it.”

Protests broke out at Syrian Embassies around the world, including in Egypt, Germany, Greece

and Kuwait, and Tunisia expelled Syria’s ambassador.But at the United Nations, Russia, Syria’s

staunch ally, had promised to veto any resolution that could open the way to foreign military

intervention or insist on Mr. Assad’s removal.The resolution on Saturday said the Security

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Council “fully supported” the Arab League plan, which calls for Mr. Assad to cede power to his

vice president and a unity government to lead Syria to democratic elections.

In an effort to placate Russia and other skeptics, Arab and Western ambassadors had dropped

specific references in the resolution to Mr. Assad’s ceding power and for calls of a voluntary

arms embargo and sanctions, and added language barring outside military intervention.Mr.

Lavrov said Saturday that Moscow still had two objections: that the resolution did not place

sufficient blame for the violence on the opposition, and that it unrealistically demanded that the

government withdraw its military forces to their barracks.

He told a security conference in Munich that adopting the current resolution would risk “taking

sides in a civil war.” In a television interview quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency, he said that

ignoring Russia’s objections would result in “another scandal.”But Security Council members,

citing the killings in Homs, pointedly disagreed. “The scandal is not to act,” said Peter Wittig,

the German ambassador to the United Nations. “The scandal would be failure to act.”The

resolution’s Western and Arab sponsors said they had compromised enough, and pushed the

measure to a vote, virtually daring Russia to exercise its veto and risk international

condemnation for failing to stop the killings in Syria.

In the end, both Russia and China said they vetoed the measure because it unfairly blamed only

the Syrian government for the violence. Ambassador VitalyChurkin of Russia called it an

“unbalanced message,” while the Chinese envoy, Li Baodong, said the resolution, in trying to

predetermine the outcome of dialogue between the government and the opposition, “might

further complicate the situation.”The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who rarely

weighs in on Security Council decisions, called the vote “a great disappointment.”

“It undermines the role of the United Nations and the international community in this period

when the Syrian authorities must hear a unified voice calling for an immediate end to its violence

against the Syrian people,” he said in a statement.He said the vote made it “even more urgent”

for the international community to seek a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic system.

In fact, diplomatic efforts were continuing outside of the Security Council.Mr. Churkin

said Russia would try to solve the problem itself. Mr. Lavrov was expected to go to Damascus

for talks with Mr. Assad on Tuesday.“The Security Council is not the only diplomatic tool on the

planet,” Mr. Churkin said.In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was consulting with its

European and Arab partners to create a “group of friends of the Syrian people” to support the

Arab League plan. “France is not giving up,” he said.Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador,

said the United States would explore ways with its allies to continue to “ratchet up the pressure”

on Damascus, including further sanctions.

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The attack in Homs, a city in central Syria that has emerged as the center of the uprising, began

Friday night after Syrian Army defectors attacked two military checkpoints and captured soldiers

there, activists said. One activist put the number of abducted soldiers at 13, another at 19. They

suggested that enraged commanders then ordered the assault, which lasted from about 9 p.m. on

Friday to 1 a.m. on Saturday, focusing on the neighborhood of Khaldiya. Five other

neighborhoods were also assaulted.

There were contradictory reports about casualties. Homs has been largely inaccessible to

journalists and difficult to reach by phone.

The Syrian National Council, which has sought to act as an umbrella group for the opposition,

said that more than 260 people had been killed. The London-based Syrian Observatory for

Human Rights said the toll was 217. Both groups, along with other activists, said hundreds were

wounded.

One opposition activist said the Syrian military suffered casualties, too.

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Videos smuggled out of the city and reports by opposition activists described a harrowing

barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that left hundreds more wounded in the city.

“It’s a real massacre in every sense of the word,” said a resident of Khaldiya who gave his name

as Abu Jihad. “I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads, beheaded. It’s horrible and

inhuman. It was a long night helping people get to hospitals.”

At one point, a resident said, people left the top floors of apartment buildings, fearful that

shelling they described as random would wreck their homes. Another resident, reached by phone

on Saturday, said that people had huddled in the dark, without water and electricity, and that

checkpoints had proliferated around neighborhoods.

“After this, no one in the world can blame us for fighting, even if we have to use kitchen knives,”

said a 40-year-old Homs resident who gave his name as Abu Omar.

The Syrian government accused the news media and activists of exaggerating the toll. A report

by the Syrian state news agency, SANA, complained of “frenetic media campaigns against Syria

disseminating false information about Syria Army shelling of civilians.”The agency declared that

“life is normal in the Damascus countryside, Hama and Homs.”

Syria took a similar view of the attacks on its missions in n the Middle East and Europe. As

many as 100 demonstrators stormed the Syrian Embassy in Cairo at 3 a.m. Saturday, tearing its

iron gate off its hinges, burning parts of the first floor and demolishing much of the

ambassador’s office. By daybreak, the floors were littered with broken glass, furniture that had

been torn apart or burned, and what remained of the office equipment.It was the second time in

two weeks that protesters had breached the embassy

AmmarArsan, the embassy’s media counselor, said he saw no connection between the events in

Homs and what he called “the terrorist attack” on the Cairo mission. “The Syrian Army is

conducting an operation against terrorist groups in Hama and Homs,” he said. “This is a crime.

Nothing in the whole world justifies this.”

The simultaneous attacks on Syrian Embassies in Germany, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and

elsewhere, he said, were evidence of coordination by Syria’s enemies.”

Palestinian Progress

After nearly 18 months of diplomatic drama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

finally got a victory, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as

a "non-member observer state". It is a symbolic victory and a counterpoint to the fiasco last year

when Abbas pursued full membership in the world body, which requires approval of the Security

Council. The Palestinians could not wrangle enough votes to even bring the matter to a vote.

A: Bd. Mihail Kogălniceanu nr. 36-46, Complexul Studenţesc Mihail Kogălniceanu, Cămin B, camera 122B

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So what now? I asked that question - what will you do on November 30? - To a range of

Palestinian officials and analysts over the past few days.

Their unanimous answer was not to answer. "Let's leave that until the day after," said

HusamZumlot, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "I don't want to

speculate," said HananAshrawi, another PLO official. And so on, perhaps with good reason: The

diplomatic upgrade carries few tangible benefits.

The most significant is that the Palestinians could ratify the Rome Statute and accede to the

International Criminal Court (ICC), which would allow them to bring cases against Israelis - for

war crimes committed in Gaza, perhaps, or for the ongoing construction of illegal settlements in

the occupied West Bank.Thousands of people, from military leaders to individual settlers, could

be subject to prosecution.The Israeli government has lately tempered its rhetoric about the

Palestinian UN bid, and has toned down the talk of consequences.But sources in Jerusalem say

that, if the Palestinians join the ICC, the Israeli reaction will be harsh, and would include

measures like cutting the flow of taxes and customs duties to the Palestinian Authority.

A symbolic upgrade at the UN is one thing; a wave of indictments that effectively bar Israeli

officials from traveling abroad would be another entirely. And so the Palestinians have been coy

about their intentions: None of the PLO officials I interviewed would talk about their plans vis-a-

vis the court. (Several European countries, most notably the United Kingdom, reportedly offered

to vote "yes" at the UN in exchange for a Palestinian promise not to join the ICC).Admission at

the UN also allows the Palestinians to join dozens of UN organizations, bodies like the World

Health Organization.nBut that, too, has been discouraged, because the US is required by law to

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cut funding to any UN organization that recognizes a Palestinian state. UNESCO accepted

Palestine as a member last year, and the US cancelled $80m in annual funding, more than one-

fifth of the organization’s budget."It feels good, but it won't end the occupation," was how many

Palestinians summarized their feelings about the UN bid.

Symbolic or not, it is a high-profile diplomatic defeat for an Israeli government that has spent

months aggressively lobbying the world to vote "no."But it is ultimately another piece of paper

from a world body that has often disappointed the Palestinians. "You have more than 200 [or]

300 resolutions in the United Nations without implementation," said Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas

official in Gaza.The most intriguing result of Thursday's vote, perhaps, will be the effect on the

long-delayed reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas.

The latter has been remarkably positive about Abbas' bid, even holding a public rally today in

Gaza to show support - a stark contrast to last year, when Hamas officials largely kept quiet and

discouraged any public demonstrations.

Officials in the West Bank have described the UN vote as "their resistance," a victory that Abbas

can hold up alongside what is widely perceived as a win by Hamas in last week's eight-day war

with Israel.Reconciliation talks have collapsed dozens of times before. But perhaps the victory at

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the UN gives Abbas a bit of momentum to bridge his differences with a newly-empowered

Hamas.

Conclusion

This review of both the general situation in the Middle East and the Palestine Question has been

aimed at serving or better still providing an enlightenment worthy of intense debates and

deliberations. Most importantly however, it has been aimed at ensuring that the basic information

needed to draft out realistic, fact based and quality filled resolutions are at hand.

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