"US pressuring against Pal UN bid - until after US elections"

The assistant secretary general of "Palestine" to the Arab League was interviewed about the severe PA budget problems and empty Arab promises to help, but he added something interesting.

Dr. Mohammed Sabih told Palestine Press Agency that the US was exerting "enormous pressure" on the Arab League and the PLO to postpone their latest bid to get recognized by the UN - until after the US presidential elections.

After the elections, he said, the US promised to be able to discuss "appropriate solutions" for the PLO.

He might be lying. But then again, he might not be. The PLO doesn't have much incentive to lie about this; if the US was pressuring the PLO to never go to the UN instead of postponing their bid for a few months, why wouldn't he say so?

Given that the initial hostility towards Israel by the Obama administration has been increasingly replaced by very public pro-Israel announcements as the election gets closer, it is easy to be cynical about the about-face.