NEWS FLASH

Ambassador Rice: Palestinian U.N. Bid ‘Not Symbolic, It Is Consequential’ | The U.S. stepped up its rhetoric against a Palestinian bid to gain United Nations membership during this month’s General Assembly meeting. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice told a gathered group of journalists that the bid is “not symbolic, it is consequential” because, if accepted, it would give Palestinians access to treaties and inter-governmental bodies like the International Criminal Court. She said the “dangerous diversion” would hurt Palestinian interests in the long run because the bid would imperil the future of the already-stalled peace process between Israel and Palestine. “The reality is, the absolute only way to achieve our goal [of] two states living side by side…is through direct negotiations,” said Rice, according to the Christian Science Monitor. “There is no short cut.”