Damon Linker thinks so:
The Palestinians hope that a growing chorus of global condemnation will eventually drive Israel either to pull back from the West Bank, thereby allowing the establishment of a fully independent Palestinian state, or to grant full political rights within Israel to the Palestinian people — a move that would turn Israel into a binational state.
Neither has any chance of happening.
Which means that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a condition that the ancient Greek philosophers would have described with the term “aporia” — meaning “to be at a loss” or “impassable.” There is no peace process. No way forward. This might change down the road. But for now it is our lamentable but unsurpassable reality.
But Judis argues that the Obama administration could still make progress if it got on board with the Palestinians joining the UN:
The U.S. could exert leverage on its own, but it may not want to act like Israel’s overlord, and there are other things that the U.N. could do that might prod the Israeli government to negotiate an end to the occupation.
If the United States had not threatened a veto, the Security Council could have made Palestine a member state. After having to helped to found the state of Israel in 1947—when negotiations had failed between Palestine’s Jews and Arabs—the U.N. would be doing likewise for the Palestinians. As a more extreme step—if U.N. disapproval failed to budge the Israelis—the Security Council could also vote sanctions against Israel, directed specifically at goods from settlements in the occupied territories, to get it to adhere to Resolution 242, which was passed in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967, and which requires Israel to “withdraw from territories occupied in the recent conflict.”
Akiva Eldar agrees:
In order to end the occupation and save the negotiations, Kerry must present the sides with an accelerated timetable for the acceptance of Palestine as a full-fledged member of the UN. Until then, the sides will have to reach agreements about land swaps, arrangements in Jerusalem and the refugee problem based on the Arab Peace Initiative. If Israel keeps barricading itself behind unfounded demands such as Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state and opts to expand settlements, it will become the occupier of a UN member state. From there, the road to the International Criminal Court in The Hague will be very short. On the other hand, if we continue the traditional dance — one step forward and two steps back — we will all fall flat on our faces.
The Dish 