Benny Avni

Benny Avni

Opinion

A superpower that roars like a mouse

Look who’s sparring at the UN Security Council: America v. Palestine.

Who’s winning? Hard to tell. Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour sure acts in public like the winner, though.

Secretary of State John Kerry is much more discreet, delivering his punches, if any, in long diplomatic sessions behind closed doors.

Whoa, wait: Isn’t America the world’s top superpower? And able to veto any Security Council action it dislikes? While “Palestine” isn’t even a state, let alone a full-fledged member of the United Nations?

Also, doesn’t the guy who started this fight and is pushing it to the max, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, owe much of his livelihood (not to mention his life) to America? In other words, how are these equal sparring partners?

Welcome to Turtle Bay.

Since September, Abbas and his envoy, Mansour, have pushed a Security Council resolution that would oblige Israel to leave the West Bank within two years, and in the process make the United Nations the top player in the diplomacy between the sides.

On Wednesday, Mansour finally convinced Arab colleagues to circulate a draft resolution to that effect in a format that’s ready for a vote.

In the magnanimity reserved to the finest of victors, he told eager UN reporters that he’s still willing to negotiate provisions of that draft with “our traditional base and our European friends” — and even with the Americans, “if they’re ready and willing.”

Gee, thanks.

But the resolution on the table won’t see a vote anytime soon. America is opposed to it, I’m told (though not by US diplomats).

And Kerry continued to negotiate the matter with colleagues around the world.

Last weekend, he flew to Rome, London and Paris. There he conducted marathon sessions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, top Palestinian aides, Arab foreign ministers, French, British and other European leaders, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov . . .

There were photo-ops, but publicly Kerry said very little to clarify America’s exact position.

Europeans — always eager to entertain Palestinian diplomatic schemes, however wacky — believe there’s room to maneuver. They still hope to pass a milder form of the Arab proposal and avoid a US veto.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reassured them this week, saying, “There is a perception [that] we have never supported any UN action related to Israel, and that is not true,” she told reporters.

Psaki said Thursday that the United States won’t support the proposed Palestinian text, but not that we’d veto it. That’s not enough.

Presidents of both parties have long understood that Israel can’t get a fair shake at the United Nations, that Washington alone must steer any international attempts at peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Past UN ambassadors — John Negroponte, John Bolton, Richard Holbrooke — have publicly expressed red lines regarding Israel-related resolutions. Violate these lines, and America would use its veto.

But our current UN ambassador, Samantha Power, has yet to speak publicly about the various ideas for resolutions — even though these could change the entire Israeli-Palestinian political landscape. And Kerry is now negotiating proposed UN texts as if it were a vital world issue.

This is not the behavior of a superpower. It’s the tactic of minor players whose only power derives from being UN members (or, here, a “UN observer” with too many fans).

Kerry may think that by showing good faith, he’ll get the Palestinians to back off. They won’t: They’ll only demand deeper UN involvement in their dealings with Israel.

He may also think the threat of UN action and world isolation could convince Israeli voters to ditch Netanyahu in the looming March 17 election. Wrong again: Bibi will turn the idea that the whole world is against Israel, which he alone can defend, into his campaign slogan. It’ll likely work.

Kerry — or better yet, the lower-ranked Power — should have publicly said “no” long ago: No, America doesn’t want the United Nations (or the Europeans) anywhere near Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. No, we have the veto power and we’re ready to use it.

And then Kerry should seriously move on to issues that constitute far greater threats to the world’s peace and security than some Palestinian-initiated resolution.