Thursday October 6, 1 - 2 pm: Palestine and the U.N

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Midday_PalestineUN_100611.mp3

Despite strong opposition from the United States and the threat of the loss of millions in funding, the board of Unesco — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — gave initial approval Wednesday to a Palestinian bid for membership, another step toward Palestine's campaign for U.N. statehood. Palestinians have held observer status at the United Nations and Unesco since the mid-1970s. But on Sept. 23,  President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, formally requested full United Nations statehood for his still undefined country. The U.S., longtime ally of Israel, has said it will veto the bid unless there is a peace deal with Israel. We'll talk about this during the next hour with Steven David, vice dean for undergraduate education at the Johns Hopkins University, an expert in international politics and former director of the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program; and Mouin Rabbani, an independent writer and analyst specializing in Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies and is a contributing editor to the Middle East Report. His articles have also appeared in The Nation.