"After their failed efforts last year to get Israel booted from FIFA, the world soccer body, the Palestinians have now reportedly set their sights on an even bigger prize: kicking Israel out of the United Nations...
Israeli officials were quick to denounce the ostensible plan, even though the chances that Israel would actually be expelled or suspended from the UN are close to zero...
According to chapter six of the UN Charter, a member state 'which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.'
The same process - a vote in the Security Council followed by one in the General Assembly - is also required to suspend a country from 'the exercise of the rights and privileges of [UN] membership.'
In the General Assembly, the Palestinians have an automatic majority, and any vote to punish Israel would likely pass.
But at the Security Council, any one of its five permanent members - the US, France, the UK, China and Russia - could veto an effort to get Israel suspended. There is no question that Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN and one of the administration's most outspoken defenders of Israel, would never let such an effort get very far.
The other permanent Security Council members, which usually vote for pro-Palestinians resolutions, could also reasonably be expected to oppose expelling or suspending Israel. Not even France or China could argue that such a move would advance the cause of peace...
Whether the Palestinians will end up actually proposing getting Israel booted or suspended from the UN will likely depend on how they assess the PR value of such a move. But everyone in Ramallah and in Jerusalem knows it has virtually no chance of succeeding."