BY KHALED ABU TOAMEH, JPOST—
The Palestinian Authority will abandon its plan to ask the UN in September to recognize a Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines if Quartet members – the US, EU, UN and Russia – recognize the two-state principle as the basis for a settlement and call on Israel to withdraw from the territories captured in 1967, including east Jerusalem, an advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.
Nimer Hammad, political advisor to Abbas, said that the Quartet should also call for a full cessation of construction in Jewish settlements and set a clear timetable for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Quartet representatives are scheduled to meet on July 11 to discuss the latest developments surrounding the Middle East peace process in wake of the PA’s intention to go to the UN in September.
“The Palestinian Authority is determined to proceed with its plan to go to the UN Security Council if Israel continues to deny the rights of the Palestinians and international legitimacy,” Hammad said.
“We are continuing with preparations in the legal and international arenas for the September battle. But if the Quartet endorses the two-state solution and demands a freeze of settlement construction, we will change our mind.”
PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday that the Palestinians would return to the negotiating table with Israel once Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declares his acceptance of the two-state solution on the basis of the pre-1967 lines and halts construction not only in the West Bank, but also in east Jerusalem.
Erekat is scheduled to visit Washington later this week for talks with US Administration officials on the statehood bid and ways of resuming the stalled peace process with Israel. He will be accompanied by Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh.
Erekat said that the Palestinian stance toward the peace process was not a pre-condition. “This is an Israeli obligation,” he said. “We hope that the Americans and the Quartet will oblige Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and stop settlement construction.”
Erekat admitted that the US was exerting heavy pressure on the PA leadership to stop it from going to the UN in September. The US Administration has also made it clear that it plans to thwart the PA move by vetoing it at the UN.
Does anyone recall that under any negotiations since the Oslo accords there had never been any mention of the expansion of so-called ‘settlements’ in the area of Judea or Samaria (now referred to as the West Bank) until our own President Obama threw this into the mix. We then had our vice-president Joe Biden throw a hissey fit on a visit to Jerusalem when a local administrator announced the approval of a building project in Jerusalem (which our government and the Palestinians now call East Jerusalem) and storm out and return home to the US. Then suddenly it became the cause celeb of the Palestinians.
Next during a planned visit to the United States of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, after it was announced that he had been invited to speak to our Congress, President Obama, a few days before the event decides to hold a press conference and announce to the world that Israel should return to the suicidal 1967 borders. The Palestinians do not need advisers they have the leadership of our country out there giving them all the help they need & now this is their new mantra.
At this time we should all be praying for our President Obama to be silent before he tries to negotiate Israel out of existence. May God help us all!
EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM WE LEARNED ON 9/11