United States fights UNESCO recognition of Palestine -- will hold back $80 million

www.politico.com/ coverage of this Diplomatic - International Relations matter of states- nations:

The United States will stop paying $80 million in dues and voluntary contributions to UNESCO in response to the body’s vote Monday October 31, 2011 to grant membership to the Palestinian Authority, but the fight over U.S. funding policy may not be over yet.

UNESCO voted 107-14 in favor of granting status to the Palestinians, triggering existing U.S. laws that prohibit American support of U.N. agencies that give the Palestinian Authority membership.

Still, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggested the administration could look for a way to rewrite or work around the law.

“We have to work with Congress because these are legislative constraints,” Nuland told reporters at a Monday briefing. “If we are going to move forward in a legislative way, we have to gain their support.”

The funding cut-off could have far-reaching effects for American tech companies, such as Apple, Google and Microsoft and movie studios that use UNESCO to open markets in the developing world and rely upon an associated entity, the World Intellectual Property Organization, to police international disputes over music, movies and software.

It’s a tough bind for the administration: The White House and State Department support UNESCO’s mission, but there’s little chance that Congress will rewrite a law that is supported by the large bloc of pro-Israel lawmakers. Indeed, there seems to be a split at State between those who are mortified by the prospect of cutting off funding for UNESCO and those who understand the political peril of angering pro-Israel forces.

Pro-Israel lawmakers mobilized pre-emptively last week, as Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign committee, and Tom Cole, a former chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign committee, wrote a letter to colleagues demanding enforcement of the funding prohibition.

“We cannot change this law and we hope you will join us in cosigning this bipartisan letter to stand by this policy,” Israel and Cole wrote. “Congress must send a powerful message that everything is done to block full membership of the Palestinian Authority to UNESCO, the UN Security Council, and other UN agencies. Such a move would be detrimental to Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, as well as UN programs around the globe.”

Israel and Cole wrote a similar letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to do everything in her power to avert the admission of the Palestinian Authority to UNESCO. But the State Department’s efforts to get the rest of the world to block Palestinian membership in UNESCO fell short despite a full-court press that included giving America’s official position in capitals across the globe.

The potential consequences for American businesses are important enough that the State Department invited representatives of about two dozen technology and pharmaceutical companies and associations to participate in a discussion of the matter in Foggy Bottom Monday afternoon.