Israeli-palestinian Dispute, United Nations | featured news

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday brushed off world condemnation of Israel's plans to expand Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reassured Israel of her country's support on Saturday, two days after Berlin disappointed the Jewish state by abstaining in a U.N. vote on the Palestinians' status.

After failing to head off a vote in the United Nations on Thursday that would upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s status, the United States and Israel are looking ahead to how they can contain the damage from the approval.

The French foreign minister says France plans to vote in favor of recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week.

UNESCO voted overwhelmingly Monday to accept the Palestinian Authority as a member, setting the cultural agency on a confrontational path with the U.S. due to American law that prohibits funding of U.N. entities that grant state status to Palestinians.

Resisting American pressure, President Mahmoud Abbas formally requested United Nations membership on Friday.

A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obama tried to qualify his own call, just a year ago, for a Palestinian state.

Seeking to defuse a major diplomatic confrontation, President Obama said the only way to achieve the goal was for the Palestinians and Israelis to resume direct negotiations.

The United States pressed ahead Monday with intensive talks aimed at averting a showdown over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations this week, asking key Muslim ally Turkey not to allow its rift with Israel to grow wider and hoping to coax cooperation from a noncommittal Russia....

The Palestinian president said Friday that he will ask the U.N. Security Council next week to endorse his statehood bid, a step that would risk a threatened U.S. veto in the council.