Content from the Brookings Doha Center is now archived. In September 2021, after 14 years of impactful partnership, Brookings and the Brookings Doha Center announced that they were ending their affiliation. The Brookings Doha Center is now the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, a separate public policy institution based in Qatar.
It was a victory for Palestinians in the United Nations yesterday, when member countries overwhelmingly voted to upgrade their status and recognize them as a non-member observer state. Despite the leverage Palestinians gain from the action, the victory is bittersweet notes Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, especially for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. There is a feeling, says Shaikh, that the ground beneath Abbas is shifting and the focus is on Hamas.
Commentary
The Challenge for Palestinians Is Leveraging UN Gains
November 30, 2012