March 8, 2011 | 12:06 am

Will Palestinians Go All the Way?

Posted by Susan Freudenheim

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In a report from Ramallah, the Los Angeles Times says that the Palestinian Authority is looking to exert extraordinary new pressure on the Netanyahu administration, hoping to get international support for a Palestinian state without peace talks with Israel. The Times story reports that the PA believes that the Obama administration is not trying hard enough to push the Israelis into talks:

The campaign will include U.N. resolutions such as one proposed last month on Israeli settlement building, boycotts against Israeli products, complaints in international courts and attempts to win formal recognition from as many countries as possible, Palestinian officials say.

They hope the effort will culminate this September in an internationally backed proposal for membership in the United Nations or a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state, even if it means invoking an obscure rule to circumvent the threat of a U.S. veto at the U.N. Security Council.

The story says that the Palestinian efforts already have provoked Israel to propose launching a “provisional state with temporary borders,” a condition for talks that has previously been rejected by the PA.

It is a risky business to toy with U.S. affections, or to force the U.S. to once again veto such actions at the UN, to test the Obama resolve, but the story also suggests that in the light of unrest in the Arab world, the PA needs to show that it is taking action.

Israel’s further isolation would not help the current situation, also in light of the unrest in the Arab world, and one wonders how long either side can afford to hold off pressure to negotiate. It would seem that the world is waiting for something to happen, and we can only hope that the process and the outcome will be peaceful.