High Noon at the UN

From "Second Thought" - "Israel Hayom" Newsletter, September 12, 2011, by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger:

...The US campaign against the Palestinian initiative at the UN is driven by the American People's and Congress' identification with the Jewish State, and by their mistrust of the UN and the Palestinians.  

• According to a May 26, 2011 CNN poll, 82% of Americans consider Israel an ally and a friend, compared with 72% in 2001. 67% support Israel, while only 16% support the Palestinians, who are as unpopular as Iran (15%) and North Korea (17%).  
• According to a February, 2011 Gallup poll, 68% consider Israel an ally; 
• the April 2011 Rasmussen Report shows that most Americans oppose foreign aid to Arab countries but support foreign aid to Israel; 
• a September 2010 Rasmussen Report indicates that most Americans are willing to defend militarily only five other countries – Canada, Britain, Israel, Germany and Mexico; and 
• the April 2010 Quinnipiac Polling Institute determines that 66% expect Obama to improve treatment of Israel.

... A February, 2011 Rasmussen Report determined that 

• only 27% of likely US voters regard the UN as an ally of the US, while 
• 15% consider the UN an enemy and 
• 54% are undecided.

Congressional attitudes toward the UN reflect public resentment of anti-American bias in the UN, a home court for anti-US countries in general and Islamic and rogue regimes in particular, even though the US funds 22% of the UN budget.   

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently introduced the United Nations Transparency, Accountability and Reform Act, which would cut off US contributions to any UN entity that grants membership, or any other upgraded status, to the Palestinian Authority. According to Ros-Lehtinen, "UN obsession with castigating Israel — from the Human Rights Council and the Goldstone Report and the Durban conferences to the multitude of UN bodies created for the sole purpose of condemning Israel — has eliminated UN credibility…. The UN’s most infamous anti-Israel act came in 1975, when the General Assembly voted to declare that 'Zionism is racism.'” 

Will Israel leverage the US attitude toward the UN and the Palestinian Authority, or will it persist in the policy of indecisiveness and retreat, which was initiated by the 1993 Oslo Accord?