The Asia News.Net
Sunday 20th February, 2011

Until now the U.S. has been but a sideshow in the in the upheavel sweeping across the Middle East.

A major risk for the U.S. has been whether the anger and frustration that has inspired the protests that have been unleashed in several Mideast and North African nations would spill over to the U.S. So far that has not been the case.

Then on Friday the U.S. went to the United Nations after spending a week trying to get the Palestinian Authority to back down on a resolution it was promoting which described Israel’s settlement activity as illegal. The U.S. government, through its Congress, which many around the world perceive to be controlled by Israel, reportedly even threatened to end funding to the Palestinians if they did not back down on the vote. Other countries were approached by the U.S. to vote against the resolution, or at the very least to abstain. None agreed. All fourteen states voted for the resolution, leaving the U.S. as a lone voice, wondering how it has become so out of touch with the rest of the world, in having to use its power of veto to stifle the international community.

"It did so at a time when winds of change are blowing in the Middle East. A promise of change was heard from America, but instead, it continued with its automatic responses and its blind support of Israel's settlement building," wrote Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz. "This is not an America that will be able to change its standing among the peoples of the region. And Israel, an international pariah, once again found itself supported only by America," Levy wrote.

The veto has received little mainstream press but is a major talking point in Arab countries.

Read article here:   http://www.theasianews.net/story/746807/ht/Palestinians-plan-Day-of....