Guardian: A Palstinian State is a Moral Right!

For the Zionist movement seeking an independent state of Israel, desire became reality in November 1947, when the General Assembly of the United Nations passed Resolution 181, supporting the establishment of a Jewish state in partitioned Palestine. The state was declared on 14 May 1948 by David Ben Gurion and the Jewish people's council in a Tel Aviv museum. The state of Israel was recognized that evening by President Truman of the United States, and by the Soviet Union a few days later. More than six decades later, Palestinians, who at first refused to accept the partition plan of the newly minted UN, are seeking similar recognition, first in front of the Security Council, asking for their own state, based on the 1967 borders, free from occupation and settle- ment by half-a-million Israelis, able to determine their own affairs. The idea of a Palestinian state should be uncontroversial. The United States supports the notion, as does the UK. Indeed, in his 2009 Cairo speech, President Barack Obama insisted: "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's." Yet Obama appears to be determined to veto the move towards Palestinian statehood, while Britain has hinted it is likely to abstain in a Security Council vote.