Reports in the Israeli media claim that around 100,000 American Jews have signed a petition to be presented to President Barak Obama, asking him to use the US veto at the UN Security Council against a resolution giving Palestine full member status. President Mahmoud Abbas presented the Palestinian Authority's application for UN recognition as an independent state last week.

According to Israel Radio, the petition says, "Since the establishment of the state of Israel, Arab countries have refused to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state, and the Palestinian Authority holds on to that stance. And therefore, the US veto must be used against the PA's application for full member status for Palestine at the UN."

A London-based commentator called the wording of the petition "a blatant distortion of reality". MEMO's Ibrahim Hewitt pointed out that in 1948, "The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel was clear that it was enacting 'the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the state of Israel'." The Palestinian Liberation Organisation recognised the state of Israel in 1993 at the time of the Oslo Accords, so it gave de facto recognition to the Jewish character of the state. "This latest insistence on separate recognition of Israel as a distinctly Jewish state is," Hewitt claimed, "another obstacle intended to give Israel more time to build even more illegal settlements and make the possibility of a viable Palestinian state even more remote." The 100,000 signatories of the petition in America have been duped, added Hewitt. "They really should study the history of the conflict before getting conned in this way."

The petition was handed over to Israeli Minister of Information Yuli Edelstein, who is currently on a visit to New York, for him to pass on to the US Administration.