BY JPOST—
Senior Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaath on Tuesday estimated that the Palestinian Authority will be able to gain recognition for a Palestinian state from two-thirds of United Nations member states before September 2011.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas was expected to travel to France on Wednesday to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
According to the A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Abbas will attempt to convince France to endorse a Palestinian state before the PA approaches the UN in September.
Furthermore, Abbas will reportedly try to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel to recognize Palestinian statehood in a meeting scheduled for May.
The Palestinian goal is to garner as many “European recognitions” of a Palestinian state as possible before September, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.
Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Middle East Quartet may try to reignite the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians by officially supporting, for the first time, the establishment of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines.
According to the report, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been facing growing pressure to present a new strategy to resume peace talks and solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US and European diplomats warned that if Netanyahu does not present a new initiative, the US, Russa, the European Union and the United Nations will potentially endorse the creation of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as the capital.
Netanyahu acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that he will deliver a speech to a joint session of the US Congress at the end of May in which he will lay out the principles of his government’s diplomatic and security policies.
“Next month I will have the opportunity to present the principles of our diplomatic and security polices during my visit to the US,” Netanyahu said at a pre-Pessah Likud gathering in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu is scheduled to go to Washington on May 22, and is expected to address Congress two days later.
On Wednesday, major donor nations in Brussels agreed that the Palestinian Authority is ready for statehood but urged it to achieve this goal through a negotiated solution with Israel rather than unilateral action.
“The PA is above the threshold for a functioning state in key sectors” based on assessments by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee said in a statement it released after a meeting it held to assess the economic and institutional capacity of the PA.
The committee reaffirmed its “support for negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in full compliance with road map obligations.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said US President Barack Obama will lay out US policy towards the Middle East and North Africa in the coming weeks.
Obama will be speaking in detail about new plans, including “renewed pursuit of comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace,” Clinton told Arab and US policy makers in her speech at the US-Islamic World Forum last week, a gathering sponsored by Qatar and the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
“The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months,” she said, saying the only way to meet both people’s aspirations was through a two-state solution.
“And while it is a truism that only the parties themselves can make the hard choices for peace, there is no substitute for continued, active American leadership — and the president and I are committed to that,” she added.
Tovah Lazaroff, Herb Keinon and Reuters contributed to this report.
This is truly the wrong path for the US to support a state hood for the Palestine controlled area. Especially going back to the 1967 land. The world will not let Israel use Jerusalem as the capital but they will let the Palestinian state use it. If we can only tell Mr. Netanyahu to only speak with Congress for now, have faith in two years we will have a new President that will support Israel. Now more than ever we must put our Trust in the Father of Abram, Isaac and Jacob. Faith in the one true living GOD is the only answer and his word is true. The Torah has the answers, it tells us how to live day by day and how to treat our neighbors. Our Father promises us if we do as he suggests he will bless us. What Father would tell you to do something then not support you while you are doing it. Be strong Israel you are not alone. There are many Americans that will support your VIA our own pocket book and with Daily prayer. We will come if asked and stand side by side with you in defense of Israel.
Sincerely your friend,
Larry A. Miller
Just further proof that the UN is a snakes den , as if further proof was needed . The only suitable place for a Palestinian state is in hades . These people are a phoney bunch of muslim Arab trash with almost no real past Palestinians among them . Furthermore , Palestine was never a country but only a city . The greatest problem the modern world is the United Nations .
Jerusalem is Israel’s. – Notice God tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem-not the peace of Israel. Why? becauses what Jesus is to the religious world, Jerusalem is to the political world- an offense! If we take Jerusalem away from the Jews- the whole world breaks up.
Psalms 122:6 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
Zechariah 12:3 3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it
Tragic mistake: The United Nations will be forcing God’s hand as to what will happen to them according to Zechariah chapters 12 & 14. They will be “cut in pieces” and “destroyed” (12:3,9) and face “‘nuclear disintegration” (14:12). With all the poitical and natural adversities that have occured recently and in the last several years, it would seem that World Leaders are blind to them being a wake up call of what God is going to bring upon this earth in short time, maybe a realvery short time . As the Prophet Amos once declared, ” Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). Maranatha
Palestinians already have a home land it’s called SYRIA! Let them go back home!
What are you going to do Israel? Are you going to allow countries that don’t care about your best interests to determine your fate? The clock is ticking on whether or not you will fight for the land (all of it) that God gave you as an inheritance! DO NOT put your future in the hands of your enemies! Destoy them! All of them!Tick..Tick…Tick….?