Opposite Effect

The U.N. middle east envoy, Alvaro de Soto, has resigned his post. A confidential report indicates he felt the U.N. was subservient to U.S. and Israeli interests and that this was making progress in any peace talks useless.

De Soto condemned economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and the EU on Hamas after it won Palestinian elections last year and said their effective endorsement by the Quartet had had "devastating consequences" for Palestinians.

"The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbor Israel have had precisely the opposite effect," he wrote.

"Even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007."

The report is here.