Israel seizes land, Abbas goes to the U.N.

Remember all that discussion, argument, flame-war, occasioned by the war in Gaza? Glad the war is over, and with it, some of the obsession. But key issues are as unresolved and as hot to the touch as ever.

I can't stand that Israel has just seized 1000 acres of West Bank land, while peace talks are going on in Cairo and before the proposed Hamas-PLA unity government has had a chance to take hold.

Is this the Likud government not saying to Palestinians you are isolated, you are weak, please resort again to violence, your only remaining choice, so we can again crush you?

That's my read — and reread — and I don't think it's too cynical.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to make an end run around a non-existent peace process and an implacably hostile  Netanyahu government by taking the issue of Palestinian statehood to the U.N.. Abed Rabbo, a spokesman for the PLO, has stated that "the international community had to take responsibility for what was happening in the territories, restrain Israel and end the occupation."

The Netanyahu government is, of course, denouncing and trying to block this initiative, as, it seems to me, it does all efforts by Palestinians toward ending Israeli settlements and securing a state of their own. So please, feel free to flame me: tell me why I shouldn't wish this appeal to the U.N. and the international community all possible success; feel free to tell me what other recourse, besides the dead-end of violence, is available for Palestinians at this time.