On July 24, the bloc of developing countries at the United Nations chose Palestine as its next leader. This decision by the bloc — known as the Group of 77 — to designate Palestine as the group's 2019 chair (starting in January) lends the Palestinian leadership great prestige, just six years after the international body recognized Palestine as a non-state member.

I admit I was not among the greatest fans of the diplomatic offensive launched at the turn of the decade by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and I underestimated its importance. I saw it as an act of desperation by a man who had given up on prospects of reaching bilateral agreement with Israel and was leading a hopeless maneuver for the world to impose an agreement on the two sides. It seemed clear at the time that the attempt to push through UN Security Council recognition of Palestine as a non-state member was doomed to fail, and I thought it was pointless. I also thought Israel should be supporting the Palestinian diplomatic efforts, to the point of being the first to recognize Palestine, as being an important goodwill gesture.

The government of Benjamin Netanyahu was largely responsible for making the Palestinian move more significant than expected through the campaign Israel waged against the development. When government ministers (such as then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman) called the Palestinian request for UN recognition “diplomatic terrorism,” they upgraded the Palestinian move, which had initially been scorned by the Palestinian public, too.

On the face of it, the prospects at the UN were clear: There was always a majority in the UN General Assembly for every Palestinian proposal due to the strong support for the Palestinians among developing nations (the largest UN bloc), whereas the United States could be counted on to veto any UN Security Council resolution perceived as anti-Israeli.