WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama once thought that his time at the United Nations this coming week would be the moment when world leaders would celebrate a new Palestinian state.
What waits for him instead is something closer to a diplomatic nightmare that may isolate the United States, anger Congress, deepen the Mideast divide and cloud the rest of Obama’s agenda.
Fed up with failed talks with Israel, Palestinians plan to appeal directly to the U.N. for statehood.
Obama says that approach will undermine the chances of a Palestinian state by ignoring the unresolved issues with Israel. So now he’s in the unenviable spot of opposing an effort whose goals he supports.
And he’s nearly standing alone in doing so.
