[Note: Amidst the stalled Middle East Peace Process, on 23 September 2011 Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas formally submitted the application of Palestine for the UN Membership. This move opposed by Israel and the US enjoyed an overwheleming support among other countries. The issue has been discussed internatinally and eeditorial commentaries from the international and Middle Eastern media are reproduced here. Editor, MEI@ND]
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 28 July 2011, Thursday
1. Palestinians look to September
The monthly discussion on the Arab-Israeli dispute at the Security Council this time around has brought in a new twist. Preparing ground for the Palestinian statehood initiative scheduled to be presented at the United Nations this September (2011), the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyadh Mansour brought to the Security Council, the views of the Palestinian leadership....
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The Daily Star, Beirut, Editorial, 11 August 2011, Thursday
2. Unbridled bias
Next month (September 2011) Palestine goes to the United Nations in New York to request recognition of its own state. Globally, this is a far from unpopular motion, with most General Assembly members staying true to their own moral standards in agreeing that the Palestinian people have a right to a country they can officially term their own....
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The Jerusalem Post, Editorial, 8 September 2011, Thursday
3. Turn crisis into opportunity
Only through dialogue and a commitment to reconciliation can true peace be attained. The Americans are making a last-ditch effort to convince Palestinians to halt their plan to ask the UN later this month (September 2011) to recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines. The US – as well as other Western countries such as Italy and Germany, not to mention Israel – would rightly like to see the Palestinians scrap their unilateral push for statehood and replace it with serious dialogue with Israel that leads to a negotiated peace agreement acceptable to both sides. Unfortunately, it appears highly unlikely that Washington’s efforts will succeed....
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Oman Tribune, Muscat, Editorial, 9 September 2011, Friday
4. Palestinian campaign
It’s been almost 63 years since they were uprooted from their home land and have been living in refugee camps, but on Thursday (8September) there arose a new beginning in the hearts and minds of Palestinians when they launched a campaign of support for their bid to become the 194th member of the United Nations. The West Bank town of Ramallah was, appropriately, the scene of a march to the UN building as the National Campaign for Palestine: state 194’ kicked off with a call to UN chief Ban Ki-moon to support the Palestinians’ just demand....  
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Oman Tribune, Muscat, Editorial, 10 September 2011, Saturday
5. Boost for Palestinians
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been quick to respond to the Palestinian campaign for statehood which was launched on Thursday (8 September) in Ramallah. What he said should give the Palestinian push for recognition of their country as the 194th member of the UN a shot in the arm: “The two-state vision where Israel and Palestinians can live…side by side in peace and security – that is still a valid vision and I fully support it.” News agencies further quoted him as saying: And I support the statehood of Palestinians; an independent and sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long overdue.” ....
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 15 September 2011, Thursday
6. Statehood moment
It is now official. Months of speculation whether the Palestinians’ would actually go ahead and make a formal bid for statehood at the United Nations this September (2011) can be now laid to rest. Despite pressure from Washington, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to go ahead for a lack of alternatives....
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Arab News, Jeddah, Editorial, 17 September 2011, Saturday
7. Statehood bid
US accepts the idea of a Palestinian state in principle; how can it oppose at UN? It is official. Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas has formally declared he will ask the Security Council to approve full membership of a Palestinian state at the United Nations, a move which is a legitimate right but which will set the stage for a diplomatic confrontation with Israel and the United States....
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 17 September 2011, Saturday
8. Hampering the statehood right
An international conglomerate is out to stall Palestinians’ bid to seek United Nations recognition for statehood. If diplomatic manoeuvring is any criteria, the European Union and the United States have almost conveyed the message to the Palestinian leadership that their move for an independent Palestinian state doesn’t fit in their scheme of things. This is nothing but shamefully giving into Israel’s intransigence...
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Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, Editorial, 18 September 2011, Sunday
9. Israel still has a Palestinian partner for peace
Abbas explains acceptance of resolution by United Nations won't substitute negotiations with Israel on core issues of final peace agreement. At a time when senior officials in Israel compete with one another in coming up with punitive measures that could be imposed on the Palestinians for seeking United Nations recognition, or when officials sow terror among the Israeli public over the prospect of renewed hostile acts by Palestinians, a voice of peace and reconciliation emanated from Ramallah on Friday (16 September)...
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The Daily Star, Beirut, Editorial, 19 September 2011, Monday
10.  Cowards and Liars
The bid for Palestinian statehood, due to be presented this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, seems to have taken some world leaders by surprise. It is difficult to see how. For more than a decade, successive United States presidents have voiced their keenness on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Bill Clinton, then George W. Bush, then finally Barack Obama have taken turns delaying a formal application for statehood under the guise of wanting to gain more favourable conditions through a continuation of peace talks...
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The Indian Express, New Delhi, Editorial, 19 September 2011, Monday
11. State of Play
After two decades of negotiations with Israel that produced little, a number of factors have converged to convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that now is the time to push for full UN membership with the 1967 borders: the Arab Spring agitated and energised Palestinian public opinion; moreover, even the World Bank and IMF believe Palestinians now have the institutions in place for a state; finally, an impasse has characterised the halted peace talks for a year...
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The Star, Toronto, Editorial, 19 September 2011, Monday
12. Palestinians force the issue
Prime Minister Stephen Harper could have framed his words more carefully when he flatly rejected the Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations this week. “Canada views the action as very regrettable and we will be opposing it,” he said. What he should have said is that his Conservative government objects. If anything, Canadian public opinion tilts the other way...
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The National, Abu Dhabi, Editorial, 20 September 2011, Tuesday
13. Statehood vote should not die in Security Council
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has spent months promoting a planned statehood recognition vote to be introduced at the United Nations this week. But as his plane sped towards New York yesterday (19 September), he warned of "very difficult times" ahead for his people. There have been questions raised: is Mr Abbas getting cold feet?..
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Oman Tribune, Muscat, Editorial, 20 September 2011, Tuesday
14. Palestinian quest
There is no denying the Palestinians now; they have travelled much too far on the road of sorrow and suffering to finally knock on the door of the United Nations and ask for justice – their very own state. Last-minute hurdles are being put up in their path – the United States and Israel are opposing their bid for full UN membership, with the US threatening a veto, while the European Union, which is divided on the issue, is attempting to conjure up a package that can accommodate their claims and legitimate aspirations but seeking a return to the negotiating table...
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 21 September 2011, Wednesday
15. Too late an offer?
In a bid to forestall the Palestinian statehood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to now hold direct talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations. With world focus now centred on the Palestinians seeking full state recognition from the UN Security Council, Israel faces a tough moment despite the bravado and demoralising attempts to downgrade the Palestinian initiative as a unilateral and futile endeavour...
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The Hindu, Chennai, Editorial, 21 September 2011, Wednesday
16. No stopping the Palestinian tide
The Palestinian Authority (PA) President, Mahmoud Abbas, has exposed a mass of contradictions in the positions taken by Israel, the United States, and major European Union countries by announcing that on September 23 (2011) he would submit to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter requesting full United Nations membership for Palestine. The request will be based on the Palestinian borders as they obtained on June 4, 1967, that is, before the Six-Day War...
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Chicago Tribune, Editorial, 21 September 2011, Wednesday
17. State of playHeading off a crisis
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may back off of his demand that the U.N. Security Council this week recognize Palestine as a full-fledged state. If Abbas stands down, it will be good for the U.S., good for Israel … and good for the Palestinians...
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Arab News, Jeddah, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
18. Et tu Obama?
US has once again betrayed Palestinians and abdicated its global leadership. The United States was presented with a historic opportunity this week to demonstrate it believes in what it preaches and it blew it. President Barack Obama’s UN address on Wednesday (21 September) will go down in history as one of the most disgraceful examples of a US leader’s self-serving grovelling before Israel and abdication of leadership...
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The Daily Star, Beirut, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
19. Show, don’t tell
U.S. President Barack Obama couldn’t have said it any better when he told the United Nations General Assembly that there was “no shortcut” to peace in the Middle East. Obama was responding to the drive by the Palestinians to secure official U.N. recognition for their independent state. The U.S. president probably thought he was being statesmanlike and realistic by solemnly declaring that “statements and resolutions” at the U.N. will not bring such a state into existence...
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The Jerusalem Post, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
20. Israel not to blame
With Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, if peace depended solely on Israel, it would have been attained long ago. There has been a tendency by some to blame the Netanyahu government for Israel’s growing diplomatic difficulties, in particular over the Palestinian statehood bid in the UN...
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
21. The UN bid should triumph
The Palestinian statehood bid is in rough waters. The onus squarely lies on Mahmoud Abbas as to how much pressure he can take in rewriting history and going ahead with an initiative that is justified and ordained as per international law...
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Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
22. Israel needs diplomacy, not speeches
Even now, when Israel's leadership is required to show diplomatic initiative, Netanyahu intends to use the United Nation's stage for anachronistic propaganda that bears no relationship to Israel's most vital interests...
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The New York Times, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
23. The Palestinians’ Bid
Last year (2010), President Obama’s speech to the United Nations was full of promise and determination to advance Palestinian statehood through negotiations with Israel. This year (2011), his address was about lowering expectations and a dispiriting realpolitik as the president spoke of how “peace is hard” and vowed to veto the Palestinians’ bid for statehood if it came to a Security Council vote...
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The Boston Herald, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
24. Obama’s U.N. moment
Having described yesterday (21 September) his role in the chain of events, should it really come as any surprise to Obama that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would take him at his word?..
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The Telegraph, London, Editorial, 22 September 2011, Thursday
25. Peace will only come through direct talks with Israel
The drive for statehood has raised expectations among many Palestinians that cannot quickly be met. The attempt by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to win formal UN recognition of its right to statehood has created an acute diplomatic dilemma for all the key players. That is no bad thing. The continuing drama of the Arab Spring has served to eclipse the Israel/Palestine stand-off since the start of the year...
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The Daily Star, Beirut, Editorial, 23 September 2011, Friday
26. Exposing hypocrisy
The talking will stop Friday (23 September), the voting will start Monday (26 September), the result is already known. Although Palestine’s bid for statehood will fail at the United Nations Security Council, this week has been a successful one for the man who brought it there...
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Gulf News, Dubai, Editorial, 23 September 2011, Friday
27. US veto at UN will kill all hopes of peace
America's Israeli bias will be exposed if it denies Palestinian request for recognition. All members of the United Nations have a duty to recognise the Palestinian state. The US plan to veto President Mahmoud Abbas' request to the UN for full membership is an outrage, and an insult to the Palestinian people...
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The National, Abu Dhabi, Editorial, 23 September 2011, Friday
28. Determined bid for statehood is vital to Palestine
Today (23 September) Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, can begin to change the rules. His speech to the UN General Assembly, and request that Palestine be recognised as a state, brings this most intractable dispute to the international community - and out of a biased framework where Palestinian interests have been steadily chipped away...
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Oman Tribune, Muscat, Editorial, 23 September 2011, Friday
29. Weathering the storm
First US President Barack Obama fires the opening but expected salvo in an attempt to sink the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, then French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggests a middle path, getting a simple observer state status, down which the beleaguered and subjugated people of Palestine could trudge maybe for years and years who knows. The hapless Palestinians, seeking to fulfil their legitimate and genuine aspirations and dreams of their own sovereign country, could not have expected anything else but open and sly opposition to their UN bid...
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The Arab News, Jeddah, Editorial, 24 September 2011, Saturday
30. His finest hour
We are glad Mahmoud Abbas went ahead with his plans defying US pressure. Mahmoud Abbas did not buckle. He stayed the course. The president of Palestine brushed aside a threatened US veto and heated Israeli objections, instead asking the United Nations to recognize a state for his people...
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The Daily Star, Beirut, Editorial, 24 September 2011, Saturday
31. The world’s turn
Mahmoud Abbas took to the podium at the United Nations Friday (23 September) and asked the international community to honour commitments it had made by recognizing the right for Palestinian statehood...
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The Jerusalem Post, Editorial, 25 September 2011, Sunday
32. Post-UN blues
Israelis and Palestinians who yearn for peace are asking themselves after the showdown at the UN this weekend: Where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? That is the question Israelis and Palestinians who yearn for peace are asking themselves after the showdown at the UN this weekend. And the answer to that question is hardly encouraging, judging from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech...
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 25 September 2011, Sunday
33. History at UN
Mahmoud Abbas has successfully pushed the envelope at the United Nations. His defiance as far as not succumbing to the pressure from the Quartet, namely the United States, the EU, the UN and Russia, is concerned is genuine leadership...
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The National, Abu Dhabi, Editorial, 25 September 2011, Sunday
34. UN vote requires Palestinian unity
What is certain is that Mahmoud Abbas has given Palestinians new hope. His speech before the General Assembly on Friday (23 September) drove home the case for UN recognition of Palestine based on self-evident principles of justice. The applause from members left no doubt about international opinion and, in Ramallah, some of the people with the most at stake roared their approval...
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Khaleej Times, Dubai, Editorial, 28 September 2011, Wednesday
35. The UNSC moment
The United Nations Security Council is in an un-chartered territory. The Palestinian bid for statehood has pushed it in a dilemma of sorts wherein it has to read carefully the fine print of international law, UN conventions and moreover keep in view the aspirations and discretion of more than two-third members of the world body who support the right for independence and sovereignty...
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Compiled by Alvite N

Alvite N is a Doctoral candidate at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Email

As part of its editorial policy, the MEI@ND standardizes spelling and date formats to make the text uniformly accessible and stylistically consistent.The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views/positions of the MEI@ND.  Editor, MEI@ND:  P R Kumaraswamy