The Palestinians have showed incredible patience. Negotiations have been going on (and off) for 18 years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated that his patience is over and that he will resign. Losing hope, the Palestinian chief negotiator has now – according to Israeli military radio – decided to take the case directly to the UN Security Council.
Palestinians to seek UN endorsement of statehood
JERUSALEM – Palestinian officials said Sunday they are preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they are losing hope they can achieve their aspirations through peace talks. The announcement drew a harsh rebuke from Israeli officials.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, the Palestinians announced plans to extend the term of President Mahmoud Abbas after a recommendation to postpone presidential elections indefinitely.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said frustrated Palestinians had decided to turn to the U.N. Security Council after 18 years of on-again, off-again negotiations with Israel. The Palestinians seek an independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
“Now is our defining moment. We went into this peace process in order to achieve a two-state solution,” he said. “The endgame is to tell the Israelis that now the international community has recognized the two-state solution on the ’67 borders.”
Abbas states that they will prepare well for discussions with the Security Council, that there will be no SC discussions until they have received assurances. That there is no point in rushing into the process just to meet a US veto.
The stakes are being raised. Let us see if this can break the total deadlock in getting meaningful negotiations.
About time.
TO deny the Palestinians a state in the UN Security Council, as probably the sole vote against it, especially after coming out for the two state solution so forcefully in Cairo, Obama would be best advised to vote for it rather than denying the Palestinians their long overdue freedom and self-determination.
This is a moment of reality-testing: does AIPAC have that kind of power over our country, or is Obama a new kind of American politician, who opts for what is best for America, the Middle East, and the world, to say nothing about liberty and human rights?
Palestinian statehood.
Politically, after decades of subterfuge and dishonesty from the Israelis, the Palestinians have nothing to lose. In fact, they may gain the political support of most nations, if they haven’t had it already.
This act will put Obama on the edge: put up or shut up. No more lies and backtracking.
Pretty much. I think it’s abundantly clear to everyone, except their supporters in the United States, that Israel is not only not negotiating in good faith, they are using negotiations as cover for an ever-accelerating land grab that will not be complete until the long-promised Mass Transfer is accomplished.
So true! Israel has never negotiated in good faith, nor did the Zionists before the State of Israel was created. That inlcludes the sainted and saintly Yitzhak Rabin, who escalated colonization even as the negotiations were in process. Oslo was a scam.
The Palestinians can declare a state all they want, but unless enough of the right kind of pressure is applied on Israel it will get them nothing but what they have now with the name “state” tacked onto it.
The only vote against? You clearly havent seen this story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/16/israel-friends-lobby-uk-politicians
Tony Blair would have been a shoe-in to reject a Palestinian declaration. But Brown? Not sure that the Palestinians will follow through with this action, but it would be interesting to see who would vote against it, apart from the US.
The Obama team has given up. The Israelis continue the colonization. The Palestinians are not interested in getting back into negotiations that have gone nowhere for 18 years. So what is the next stage?
It could be a problem that under basic law Abbas is no longer President of the PA as his 4-year term has expired and the basic law acts as the temporary consitition. Maybe the arguement that Hamas have used, with legal experts siding with them, that Abbas cannot negotiate anything as he is no longer president will be used buy others who up till now have tried to dodge this little bullet.
I don’t think that’s as big a problem as it sounds. Abbas doesn’t negotiate anything as President of the PA, but as Chairman of the PLO. And Hamas has said that it will accept whatever settlement the PLO can achieve, so long as it is put to a referendum.
“Negotiations have been going on (and off) for 18 years.“
Don’t you mean a pathetic pretense at negotiations?
I guess so – my parenthesis.
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(Washington Post) June 25, 2009 – Evangelical Christians in the United States also support the settlements, raising millions of dollars for them, according to a recent National Public Radio report. The Colorado-based Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, for example, encourages churches and ministries to connect with “the pioneers of Biblical Israel” through the “adopt-a-settlement program.” Sondra Oster Baras, director of the organization’s Israeli office, estimates that more than half of the West Bank settlements receive direct or indirect support from Christians, according to the NPR report.
A handful of wealthy businessmen, including American casino magnate Irving Moskowitz, are widely reported to have donated to groups such as the Brooklyn-based not-for-profit Hebron Fund, which raises money to support residents in the West Bank city of Hebron. According to the donation page on its Web site, the organization aims to “keep Hebron Jewish for the Jewish people.” Friends of Itamar, also based in Brooklyn, engages in domestic, tax-deductible fundraising for the West Bank settlement of Itamar. All this comes at the expense of the U.S. government, which loses tax revenue by allowing these groups to operate as not-for-profit entities.
Not all support for the settlements comes through charitable organizations. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that in 2007, the settler organization Amana held “housing fairs” in New York and New Jersey to encourage American Jews to buy property in the West Bank. According to the Jewish Voice and Opinion, a self-described “politically conservative Jewish publication” in New Jersey, approximately 250 people attended and as many as 10 properties were slated for purchase.
Despite U.S. objection, Israel plans 900 homes beyond Green Line
Dov Hikind, the extremist New York City Councilman, is promoting American home ownership in the occupied West Bank. – Haaretz. Sickmaking. Of course the Palestinians are accused of making an unilateral move by aspiring their own independent state. This is what Nasrallah thinks of Obama.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
I do hope Obama is taking notice, this may lead to conformity and harmony with Israelis. U.S. Congress biased? We must respect Israel’s right of self defence from terror attacks. The world has changed since 9/11 Netanyahu believes.
(IsraelNN.com) The chances of the Palestinian Authority convincing the United Nations to recognize the PA as an independent Arab country are “dead on arrival,” according to Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman, visiting Israel from his home state of Delaware. Speaking at a news conference Monday at the Saban Forum, he was joined by other senators who also ridiculed the idea.
Independent U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, a former candidate for vice president for the Democratic party, called the Arab effort a “waste of time” because it would eliminate Israel from the diplomatic process. “I hope and presume that the United States would veto such a move if it ever came to the [United Nations] Security Council,” said Lieberman.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. , center, talks as Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-D.E. , left, Rep. Susan Davis, D-C.A. , second left, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. , second right, and Rep. Jane Harman, D-C.A. (AP photo)"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."