By paying lip service to the two-State solution, the US politicians are unwilling to support Palestinian statehood. Overseas social media outlets have widely criticized the US for its veto of Palestine's full membership at the United Nations (UN). A number of countries including China, Egypt and Ireland expressed disappointment. In a statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) criticized the US' move for setting back the efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US vetoed the resolution demanding Palestine's full membership at the UN on April 18, local time, and ruthlessly dashed the decades-long dream of the Palestinian people. The US has not played its due role in stopping the lingering war in Gaza, but has tried its best to thwart the Palestinian people's efforts to appeal for justice, which completely exposes its hypocrisy and double standards on the Palestinian-Israeli issue once again.

An independent state has been a long-cherished dream of the Palestinian people. The formal application by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) for UN membership in 2011 encountered coordinated opposition from the US and some other countries, and as a result Palestine was only granted non-member observer state status at the UN.

The new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict breaking out in October 2023 caught the Gaza Strip in the flames of war. Due to its incapability to effectively manage the development of the situation in Gaza, the PNA's only hope lies in the application of full UN membership, aiming to garner broad support from the international community and pressure Israel to end its military operations in the Gaza Strip at an early date. In the opinion of many countries including China, the UN admitting Palestine as a full member state will endow it with equal status with Israel, which helps lay the ground for negotiations between the two countries. Nonetheless, the veto by the US strangled the aspirations of the Palestinian people and the efforts of the international community once more.

According to some analysts, the US, by paying lip service to the two-State solution, has repeatedly dashed the hopes of the Palestinian people. On the one hand,  out of the need to consolidate US hegemony in the Middle East and its domestic politics, successive US administrations have all regarded Israel as their most important ally, leading to its limitless partiality and indulgence towards Israel. When Israel opposes Palestine's full membership at the UN, the US is bound to do its part.

On the other hand, the US always believes that any progress on the Palestinian-Israeli issue should occur under its own leadership. Palestine's unilateral application for UN membership will degrade the leading role of the US in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Hence, it is impossible for the US to take a fair position on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. In its eyes, achieving peace between Palestine and Israel does not matter, and what really matters is safeguarding its own selfish interests.

Amidst the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and exacerbating humanitarian crisis, as the most important third party in the Palestinian-Israeli issue, the US has not only failed to provide sufficient assistance to the Gaza Strip, but also continuously supplied Israel with weapons and equipment and has repeatedly vetoed Gaza ceasefire proposals by relevant countries at the UN.

Even more worrying are the emerging spillover effects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Middle East appears to be trapped in a new round of retaliation and counter-retaliation after US and Israeli officials revealed on April 19 that Israel had launched a "limited" air strike against Iran. As the Palestinian issue is the nucleus of the Middle East issue, the admission of Palestine as a full member of the UN is more urgent than ever.

Ironically, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Representative of the US to the UN, said that Palestine's formal admission to the UN would do no good to help lead to a two-State solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The US' move raises the question as to what will help achieve the two-State solution. Does the solution lie in the US' delivery of weapons to Israel over and over again or in US' repeated vetoes at the UN? These unconscionable actions further confirm the US' role as a "troublemaker" and "spoiler" in international and regional affairs. When it comes to the future and destiny of the Palestinian people, no one has a veto.

Editor's note: Originally published on news.cri.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.