New Zealand campaigned long and hard for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Now that our turn has come to chair the council for a month, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says we will put at the top of our agenda an attempt to revive peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Nobody can accuse him of picking the easy ones.
The Palestine question has practically disappeared from discussion since very early in United States President Barack Obama's term when Israel rebuffed his attempt to restart talks and ignored his plea to stop further settlements of the occupied territory. With American public opinion still favouring Israel, Mr Obama backed off and concentrated on more immediate problems in the Middle East: first the extraction of US forces from Iraq, then the short-lived Arab Spring, civil war in Syria, the emergence of a Sunni death cult called Islamic State and a tentative nuclear settlement with Iran.
With the US so preoccupied, the opportunity may exist for the UN to try again to resolve the problem that lies at the heart of so much Arab resentment of the West. Mr McCully calls it "the biggest and most intractable problem on the world stage". If that was previously the Government's view, it was not always apparent. As recently as February, when Israel refused to recognise the credentials of a newly appointed ambassador because he was also to be our envoy to the Palestinian Authority, the Government bowed to Israel's demand for separate assignments.
But in doing so the Government made its retiring UN representative, Sir Jim McLay, point man for Palestine. He was also designated a special adviser to Mr McCully and an envoy for the Prime Minister. Fresh from leading the campaign for the council seat, Sir Jim will be well acquainted with the expectations of countries that voted for us. A resumption of Arab-Israeli talks must be their priority.
But our diplomats will be under no illusions of how difficult it will be to interest Israel in a UN initiative. The UN is regarded with resentment and contempt among conservative Israelis who seem to be the majority these days. UN refugee camps are blamed for Palestinians' refusal to accept permanent exile and countless UN resolutions condemning Israel's actions have been ignored.
