I’m not holding my breath, but it looks like the UN is finally doing its job of neutral mediation in the middle east. The UN human rights envoy for the Palestinian territories publicly stated two days ago that the UN should withdraw from the ‘quartet’ (US, Russia, EU and UN) to protest lack of concern for Palestinian human rights on the part of the other quartet members. Of course the UN has no power at all, except to lend legitimacy to mediation processes; so it’s completely appropriate that it withdraw under these circumstances.
In fact, I doubt it will come to that. But who knows, this may even have put some pressure on the Israelis to come up with more meaningful concessions. The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has just announced that some outlying areas around Jerusalem could be given to the Palestinians in response for their longstanding demand for an East Jerusalem capital. The Guardian has the full story.