What "fallout?" Best I can tell, there's been a whole bunch of people talking about independence but not yet doing much of anything. And Russia going into histrionics has become something of a pattern in recent years, yet it doesn't often seem to amount to much.
It's still possible that things could go haywire (though I doubt it), but for the moment, I think the alarmists need to settle down. Just because the US and a bunch of western European states recognized Kosovo does not mean that they are obligated to recognize anybody else. Hypocrisy is the prerogative of powerful states.
Nice rhetoric, but the best thing that the PA could do is to dissolve itself and stop being Israel's proxy security force in the West Bank. "Independence?" What independence? With all their borders, air-space, movement, and water and electricity controlled by Israel (supported by US) who will not relinquish it? What are the PA people smoking?
I'll defer to Caroline Glick on this one:
"Kosovo's US-backed declaration of independence is deeply troubling. By setting a precedent of legitimizing the secession of disaffected minorities, it weakens the long-term viability of multi-ethnic states. In so doing, it destabilizes the already stressed state-based international system.
States as diverse as Canada, Morocco, Spain, Georgia, Russia and China currently suffer problems with politicized minorities. They are deeply concerned by the Kosovo precedent. Even the US has latent sovereignty issues with its increasingly politicized Hispanic minority along its border with Mexico. It may one day experience a domestic backlash from its support for Kosovar independence from Serbia.
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