Palestinians officially launch statehood campaign - Yahoo! News
Yahoo News reports: "The Palestinians on Thursday officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they would stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly later this month."

Comment: It's difficult to see how the Quartet can spin this as anything but a monumental repudiation of their negotiating strategy. The Palestinians are attempting to do an end-run around the established peace process and it remains to be seen whether the U.S. and the rest of the Quartet team of Mideast peacemakers will let them get away with it. That most of the countries in the world are against Israel is a given, but thankfully, Israel has never entrusted their security to the goodwill of others. The real question is: Can Israel still count on friends?