The latest disclosures from leaked Palestinian documents show the United States encouraged Palestinian officials to help delay a U.N. vote on the Goldstone inquiry into Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza beginning in December 2008. The inquiry found that Israel committed a range of war crimes during the assault, with a far smaller number committed by Hamas. The Palestinian Authority initially backed a delay to the vote but relented under popular pressure. At the time, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had wanted to gain more international support. But leaked documents in the ”Palestine Papers” show the United States told Abbas that delaying the vote would be necessary to relaunch negotiations with Israel. Appearing on Al Jazeera, the former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, Patrick Theros, said the Obama administration had sought the delay to help advance “other foreign policy objectives” in the Middle East.

Patrick Theros: “The United States at the time was trying to seek other foreign policy objectives in the area, and I think there was a decision made in Washington that moving the Goldstone Report forward too fast would be unhelpful. And the Palestinian Authority has a considerable history of trying to accommodate U.S. interests, on the assumption that the only force outside that can bring the Israelis rationally to the table would be the United States.”