Palestinians to ask for UN recognition if peace talks fail, says Abbas

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been dropping hints that he will leave his post in September should negotiations with Israel not resume by then, and should there be no agreement about the establishment of a Palestinian state.

During a meeting in Ramallah with members of the Council for Peace and Security (who include former top IDF officers ), Abbas declared that the PA intends to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to win Israeli recognition for such a state. However, he indicated, if no accord is reached between the two sides, and if serious talks do not resume, the PA will turn to the UN General Assembly in September and request recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

Asked about possible scenarios following such a UN vote, Abbas claimed he is deliberately maintaining ambiguity on this issue. Yet, he said, "should we return [from the United Nations] empty-handed, we will convene a meeting of the Palestinian leadership and decide what to do. We have autonomous rule, but we don't have independence. There is and isn't occupation. The [Israeli occupiers] can come at any moment. They can invade our territories. They can do anything. They can even stop me, as head of the PA, from going home."

"So what are we supposed to do?" he asked. "What should be our answer, if we have lost all hope? I can't respond to that."

Abbas reiterated that the PA will only turn to the UN General Assembly if it runs out of all other options.

"If you [Israelis] do not want negotiations, and don't want an accord, then what are we supposed to do?" he said. "We have imposed order and security here for the past four years, and things are stable now: There is law and order, the economy is progressing, life is normal everywhere in the West Bank. Please, you must take advantage of the opportunity to continue [with talks]. If [the Israelis] don't want [talks], then we will leave. We will leave."

When asked by Haaretz whether he means by these statements that the Palestinian Authority will be disassembled, Abbas responded that he did not say that. He clarified that under the present circumstances, the question "why continue this way" is asked repeatedly.

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http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-to-ask-for-un-recognition-if-peace-talks-fail-says-abbas-1.353178

No time to lose in the Middle East peace process

The Jewish settlement of Hashmonaim, dating from the mid 1980s, in the West Bank.


During the last two years, Israelis and Palestinians have not marked an inch of progress towards the hoped for two-state solution. It is high time the international community mobilised serious efforts in that direction.

Israelis and Palestinians spent years negotiating the intertwined core issues of Jerusalem, the holy sites, the refugees, territory, borders and settlements, and security. I believe that we know what a final agreement will ultimately look like. Since President Clinton's parameters were laid down in December 2000, every political initiative to ending the conflict has led to the same fundamental solutions. The recent leak of Palestinian documents proves it.

It seems that there has never been a shortage in ideas, plans and initiatives. Moreover, the convergences between the parties throughout this period have been apparently more substantive than publicly revealed to date.

In Israel, time is running out for those who want to secure a Jewish and democratic state within recognised boundaries alongside a demilitarised Palestinian state. True, polls consistently demonstrate that Israelis overwhelmingly support the two-state solution. But this majority has not been heard politically. Israelis are starting to realise that, and are getting their act together to change this discourse. They say: we are proud to be Israeli, Jewish and Zionist, and refuse to apologise for it. We would like to secure this identity for generations – and, for that purpose, a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel is imperative.

In the absence of a capable leadership in the Middle East, a series of conditions should be considered by the US and its allies in this endeavor in order to reverse the course of the process for the benefit of all parties concerned.

First, there is a need to combine the bilateral approach with a regional one, thus establishing a supportive Arab coalition for a possible Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and providing further opportunities for negotiations and trade-offs. To the detriment of the PLO, Israel's interlocutor since Oslo in 1993, Gaza is governed by Iranian-backed Hamas, a brutal terrorist organisation, dedicated to the destruction of Israel. It is only under a regional framework that the Gaza timebomb could possibly be addressed. The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative represents a significant and strategic shift in the Arab League's approach to resolving the dispute. It should serve as a basis for further negotiations.

Second, it is crucial to win the individual and collective hearts and minds of the peoples in the region. We need to prepare the ground ahead of time for tough decisions to be taken towards peaceful co-existence. It is essential gradually to change the public's mindset by creating a new vocabulary, a fresh discourse, even if that means tackling what were once taboos. Until today, little thought was given to the preparation of public opinion. Media coverage focused on what the respective parties are likely to be giving up, rather than on the benefits of peace. And so mutual hostility continued unchecked.

Third, the architecture of the Oslo process must be reframed. It seems essential to change the "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" paradigm of Camp David, Taba and Annapolis – into "what has been agreed should be implemented". Such an approach would open the way for an agreement on boundaries, security, statehood and the economy. Subsequently, the negotiations over Jerusalem and the refugees will continue in a state-to-state fashion.

Fourth, seeking the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be based anymore on falsified grounds, distorted truths and double standards vis-à-vis Israel, thus encouraging anti-Israel terrorism. Pursuing Israeli settlement relocation, within a final territorial agreement, should follow 1967 United Nations security council resolution 242. The resolution was drawn up by Lord Caradon, UK representative at the UN who stated:

"We didn't say there should be a withdrawal to the [19]'67 line; we did not put the 'the' in, we did not say all the territories, deliberately … We did not say that the '67 boundaries must be forever; it would be insanity."

The British foreign secretary at the time, George Brown, said:

"I have been asked over and over again to clarify, modify or improve the wording, but I do not intend to do that … Before we submitted it to the council, we showed it to the Arab leaders. The proposal said 'Israel will withdraw from territories that were occupied', and not from 'the' territories, which means that Israel will not withdraw from all territories."

And finally, tangible coordination on the ground should be promoted, enabling the bottom-up progress to sustain a political dialogue. Since 2007, we have seen in the West Bank a genuine Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation. In that climate, self-interest starts to supersede mistrust between the parties, as has been demonstrated in steady economic growth, rapid institutional development and improved welfare.

It is essential that President Obama should find without delay a mechanism to resume negotiations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Yes, all three face a different set of domestic problems, but the US president should insist on maintaining a rigid negotiation framework with a binding agenda from which the parties cannot be allowed to depart. There is a reasonable chance of reaching a partial agreement on territory, security and the establishment of the Palestinian state within the president's remaining effective term.

The two-state solution is not only in the interest of Israel: it is clearly in the interest of the United States, Europe and the moderate Arab world to enhance global peace and stability.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/25/palestine-papers-two-state-solution

Clinton: Arab resolution on Israeli settlements submitted to UN not helpful

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the State Department in Washington

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be resolved through direct peace negotiations, not by submitting resolutions to the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The United States has opposed a move by Arab countries to bring a resolution condemning the settlement, but has not said it would use its veto to block passage.

Clinton told reporters the issue needs to be resolved through direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, even as the United States has also condemned continued settlement construction.

"We dont see action in the United Nations or any other forum as being helpful in bringing about that desired outcome," she said, before adding that the United States is "working to keep the focus where we think it needs to be, and thats not in New York."

Early indications are the resolution, tabled on Wednesday had nearly unanimous support, but it likely will not come to a vote for a few weeks.

U.S.-brokered direct talks ended in September - just weeks after they began - when an Israeli moratorium on settlement building expired. The Palestinians have demanded a freeze as a condition for holding the negotiations.

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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/clinton-arab-resolution-on-israeli-settlements-submitted-to-un-not-helpful-1.338303

Arab Nations to Seek UN Pressure on Israel to Stop Settlement Construction

A Palestinian man is seen through a water pipe as he gestures while removing rubble after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 21, 2010. Israel carried out a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said, after militants from the Hamas-ruled territory fired rockets into southern Israel.

Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority are set to ask the United Nations Security Council to demand that Israel halt settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A draft resolution demanding that Israel “immediately and completely ceases all settlement activities” was to be given to the Security Council’s 15 member governments late yesterday or today, Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said in an interview.

The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said that U.S. diplomats told him that the Obama administration opposes having the Security Council take up a resolution on the settlements issue. The U.S. mission to the UN didn’t respond to a request for a public comment on the draft resolution.

“The only road to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is through direct negotiations,” Israel’s Ambassador Meron Reuben said yesterday in an e-mail. “Palestinian attempts to bypass this road only move us further away from returning to the negotiation table. We hope that the international community won’t allow these moves to divert both sides from reaching the real goal: peace and stability in our region.”

The Security Council move stems from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s instructions last month to Mansour to begin talks in New York on a draft resolution.

Mansour said in an interview that the text was being distributed now so that Security Council members could study it over the next 10 days before formal talks are held in January. He said about 35 nations have agreed to co-sponsor the draft, which also condemns the continuation of settlement activity as illegal and a “major obstacle” to peace.

‘No Movement’

“We have to move on this track because there is no movement on any front,” Abdelaziz said. “We have a crisis situation. The Israelis have rejected the American proposal for a settlement freeze and they continue every day with settlement activity.”

The U.S. decided early this month to stop pressuring Israel to renew a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction. Palestinians refused to return to talks without an extension of the freeze, which expired in September.

The Arabs may have up to 14 votes for the draft resolution in the 15-member Security Council, and recognize that the measure would probably be defeated by a U.S. veto, said Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the UN.

“If it gets 14 votes, they will put it to a vote,” Dabbashi said. “We know finally it will not pass.”

Libya introduced a similar draft resolution when it had a seat on the Security Council two years ago, but didn’t put the text to a vote.

“The situation is different now,” Dabbashi said. “Now there is practically no peace process. It is at a standstill. At the time, there was not an overwhelming majority to put it to a vote. It was not only the U.S. This time we feel it should have 14 votes.”

New Members

Abdelaziz said the entry of India and South Africa onto the Security Council as non-permanent members on Jan. 1 will create a body that will be “much in favor of movement” on the draft. The U.S., he said, might abstain rather than veto.

“Are the Americans even a little bit offended that the Israelis are brushing them aside all the time?” Abdelaziz said. “We will ask them to abstain.”

He said the Arabs haven’t received any signal from the Obama administration that abstention was a possibility.

About 500,000 Jews have moved to the West Bank and Jerusalem since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Middle East war. The UN says the settlements are illegal, and the International Committee of the Red Cross says they breach the Fourth Geneva Convention governing actions on occupied territory.

Israel says the settlements don’t fall under the convention because the territory wasn’t recognized as belonging to any country before the 1967 war, in which Israel prevailed, and therefore isn’t occupied.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-22/arabs-to-seek-un-demand-for-end-to-israeli-settlement-building.html

Gaza Rocket Hits Near Kindergarten, Israeli Strikes Wound Six

Israel’s air force struck at least eight different targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, wounding six people, and Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel that hit near a kindergarten, injuring two.

The situation is “fragile and explosive,” Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, told a parliamentary committee yesterday, according to the army website. Israel has stepped up operations in Gaza in response to “terrorists’ decision to intensify their activity,” Ashkenazi said.

About 15 mortar shells and rockets have hit Israel since Monday, the army said. The upturn in violence came as Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations remained stalled and reconciliation talks between the Islamic Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority that runs the West Bank are frozen.

Hamas “is saying we are still here,” said Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv, adding that he expected “low-level escalation over the next few weeks” and nothing more than that.

Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union, refuses to recognize or negotiate with Israel. The Islamic movement seized control of Gaza in 2007 after winning parliamentary elections a year earlier, ending a partnership government with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

Mortar Attacks

Since the beginning of 2010, more than 200 rockets and mortar shells have been fired into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip.

The attack in southern Israel came after warplanes struck seven targets in Gaza early yesterday, the army said in a text message to journalists. Israel launched another strike in the afternoon, hitting what it said was a “Hamas terror activity center.”

In Gaza, Adham Abu Silmeya, spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry’s emergency service, said two Palestinian militants and four civilians were wounded in Israeli air strikes.

Ronit Gil, a preschool teacher in Kibbutz Zikim, the collective community where the rocket fell, said she was getting out of her car and walking to the kindergarten when the air siren went off.

“I heard the boom,” Gil said on Army Radio. “Things are very tense here.”

A teenager and an adult were injured in the attack, the army said.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-21/gaza-rocket-strikes-near-israeli-kindergarten-as-violence-grows.html

Ban Ki-moon says regrets continued W. Bank building

UN Sec.-Gen. urges Israel to "fulfill its Road map obligation to freeze all settlement activity"; says encouraged by determination of US efforts.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed regret that "Israel will not heed the united call of the international community...to extend the settlement restraint policy," in a statement issued by his spokesman early Thursday morning.

In the statement, Ki-moon reiterated his "urging Israel to fulfill its Road map obligation to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem."

The spokesman continued, "In spite of this setback, the secretary-general believes it is more important than ever to promote a negotiated end-game for a two-State solution."

Ki-moon added that he "is encouraged that the United States has indicated its determination to continue its efforts in this direction and he urges the full cooperation of the parties towards that end." The secretary-general, the statement noted, "is looking forward to these matters being discussed in the days to come among all members of the Quartet."

The US earlier this week, announced that it was giving up on securing an extended settlement freeze as a move to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table. Israel has resisted calls to implement an additional West Bank building moratorium and the Palestinians have said they will not return to direct negotiations without a freeze in place.

Washington said its new approach on the Israeli- Palestinian peace process will be to focus on the final-status issues.

“We’re going to focus on the substance and try to make progress on the core issues themselves. We think that will create the kind of momentum we need to get to sustained and meaningful negotiations,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday.

“I would describe this as a change in tactics rather than a change in strategy. It’s not a change of our objectives at all,” he said.

He said that he didn’t anticipate the Israelis and Palestinians meeting together in Washington in the coming days, but avoided characterizing the process as returning to the proximity talks that were held before the launch of direct talks.

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http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=198659

Argentina Joins Brazil in Recognizing Palestinian State

Argentina's government has announced that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as an independent state within their pre-1967 borders, following a similar move days earlier by neighboring Brazil.

The Argentine foreign ministry said Monday that President Cristina Fernandez had informed her Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, of the decision in a letter.

The ministry said the recognition is in response to a request made by Mr. Abbas during a visit to Argentina last year. It comes three days after Brazil's recognition, also in response to a similar request.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday that he expects Uruguay and Paraguay to recognize Palestinian statehood in the next few days, followed by Bolivia and Ecuador.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said more than 100 countries have recognized Palestine as a state within the borders it had before Israel seized control of the West Bank in 1967.

Israel's foreign ministry called Argentina's announcement "regrettable," and said it would not change the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. lawmakers last week had condemned Brazil's recognition as "severely misguided" and "regrettable."

The announcements by the South American countries come as Middle East peace talks remain suspended. The Palestinians withdrew from direct negotiations when Israel in September refused to extend a temporary freeze on new settlement construction in the West Bank.

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http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Argentina-Joins-Brazil-in-Recognizing-Palestinian-State-111418479.html