Never have so many fretted so much about so little.  The Palestinian Authority has gotten the United Nations General Assembly to recognize it as a non-member state.  They have appeared and spoken before the General Assembly many times in the past as observers.

Whatever the Palestinian Authority thinks they are accomplishing by this unilateral maneuver, they are not.  The left wing believes this is a first step to assuring a two-state solution.  It is not.  In fact, it essentially eliminates any possibility of a two-state solution for many decades to come.

Israel now has an excuse to simply ignore Abbas.  He has violated the Oslo accords by acting unilaterally, and there is no longer any justification to pressure Israel to negotiate.  Moreover, Hamas will never accept Abbas's authority over one square inch of "Palestinian" land, just as they will never agree to accept the legitimacy of the State of Israel.  That means, at best, that what the United Nations will be setting in motion is a three-state solution, not a two-state solution.

What the left will learn, much to their chagrin, is that the United Nations has just removed Israel from a very difficult situation.  A two-state solution, whereby Gaza and the West Bank were part of a single nation, was a geographical and security nightmare.  It did not work for Pakistan, which is now Pakistan and Bangladesh.  It had even less chance of working for "Palestine."

Now, with Abbas accepted by the United Nations but not by the duly elected government of the Gaza Strip, a three-state solution is firmly along the way, eliminating the need for Israel to find a way to permit transportation and communications interconnections across their sovereign land.

Under no circumstances will Israel be required to open up Gaza once the United Nations General Assembly recognizes Abbas's government, since his government does not control Gaza.  The distinction between the two lands is now dramatically cemented.  Abbas cannot legitimately claim that an attack on Gaza is an attack on the West Bank, because he clearly is not the leader of Gaza.  Any legitimacy for a united Gaza and the West Bank is now decidedly eliminated.

The absurdity of the United Nations' action is highlighted by numerous unanswered questions.  First, what are the borders of the Palestinian non-member "state"?  There are no determined borders, and there are not likely to be any.  Where would one place the border in Jerusalem?  Will Palestine be asked to forfeit the Dome of the Rock?  Not likely.  Will Israel be required to forfeit the Western Wall?  Not likely.  That means that a military and governmental border will have to be established between the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, sitting right on top of it.  How realistic is that?  Good luck setting in place a demilitarized zone on that border.  The most hostile military border in the world would be located right smack in the middle of the holiest sites for three major religions.

For the United Nations to act on this petition without considering these obstacles, and in violation of the Oslo accords, is not just wrong; it is foolish. 

This is a typical left-wing knee-jerk feel good act failing to consider ramifications.  It is emblematic of the disconnect between leftist goals and reality -- a disconnect that has been growing for the last fifty years in Europe and in the United States.  What J Street and other left-wing organizations cheering this absurdity will come to realize is that they have celebrated a path that will increase, not decrease, the chances for a debilitating war that is likely to spread across the world.

We have come to expect no less from the United Nations, frankly.  In its entire history, it has failed to assure peace anywhere.  It failed to establish peace right at the outset of its existence in Korea.  It failed in Yugoslavia.  It failed in Hungary and Poland and Czechoslovakia.  It has failed to protect the millions of lives lost in Darfur, the Congo, and elsewhere in Africa.  Its World Health Organization has failed to cure AIDS or even stem the tide of the disease's growth in Africa.  It has failed to make a dent in poverty, or child labor, or abuse of women anywhere in the world.  It has failed to protect the peace on the Israeli borders at any time, despite millions of dollars spent every year to pay for useless observers.

Only recently, the United Nations promised to secure Lebanon to prevent the rearming of Hezb'allah.  They have proven useless in that effort.  They have failed to prevent any nation from acquiring nuclear capability, the latest failure being Iran.  Their Human Rights Commission has done nothing about true abuses of human rights anywhere in the world, focusing absurdly on Israel, the only nation in the Middle East preserving women's rights and children's rights.  They have been chaired by such "stalwarts" of human rights as the Syrian government.

The United Nations is recognized by many people in the United States as a useless mockery.  Its only positive purpose is to prop up real estate prices in New York City and support the restaurant and hotel business there.  And this latest action will do nothing to change that well-earned view.