Is the U.S. position logical?

The Inter Press Service is reporting that the UNESCO General Conference is likely to admit Palestine as a member state of the Organization in the last week of October over the objections of the United States delegation, and that the United States is likely to withhold its contributions to UNESCO in retaliation.

IPS has also reported this statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

"Unfortunately, there are those who, in their enthusiasm to recognise the aspirations of the Palestinian people, are skipping over the most important step, which is determining what the (Palestinian) state will look like, what its borders are, how it will deal with the myriad issues that States must address."

The determination of the borders of the Palestinian state is of course also the determination of the borders of the state of Israel; the negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Government of Israel are to determine the borders between the two states, presumably be swaps of territories on both sides of the boundary specified by the United Nations.

Are we to assume that Secretary Clinton will now demand that the United Nations and its specialized agencies withdraw membership from all states with disputed boundaries?

I recall that during the early years of the United States our borders were also in dispute, but fortunately France recognized the United States as a nation and provided help in the Revolutionary War. It was not until 1871 that the border dispute between the British Empire and the United States over the Oregon border was finally settled.