Despite US opposition more than 130 countries will vote for Palestine’s statehood at the UN. There is also support within Israel’s diplomatic and security services, but the IDF are to issue settlers with tear gas and stun grenades and order soldiers to shoot at the feet of any protesters.
Later this month the UN General Assembly will vote to recognise the Palestinian State. While the USA, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic are opposing the vote, recent changes in the Palestinians' bid may change their minds. The Israeli government assumes that a successful vote will be a clear disaster. But neither its security establishment nor all of its diplomatic service entirely agree. Veteran diplomat and former head of the Foreign Ministry Alon Liel has explicitly argued that that it could be advantageous to Israel.
Netanyahu can still avoid a major confrontation with the rest of the world and request that Palestine postpones its UN bid, so that Israel could then support it with some modifications. But the record of Netanyahu's government makes it difficult to be optimistic. Its state of mind remains too distrustful towards the external world to allow for such a change.
Therefore Israel prepares for diplomatic confrontation as well as for clashes with Palestinians, and the Israeli Defence Force is giving coaching to settlement security officers on how to deal with demonstrations. While the Palestinian leadership has decided that any protests after September 20 will be peaceful, the recent terror attacks in the south of Israel and in Tel Aviv show that its control over the situation is, however, tenuous, and that "mass disorder" and another round of escalating violence is inevitable.
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