19/9/11 - Abbas: All hell has broken loose ahead of UN statehood bid

Palestinian Authority president admits he is under "huge" international pressure over statehood gambit as US, Russian, EU and UN diplomats meet in ongoing effort to persuade PA to forgo move.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that he remains committed to seeking full membership for a Palestinian state at the United Nations despite the fact that that he is facing "huge" international pressure to abandon the plan and he expects "difficult times" in the aftermath of the bid.


"We decided to take this step and all hell has broken out against us," Abbas was quoted by the Ma'an news agency as tellling reporters on his flight to New York.

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“The Palestinian people and their leadership will pass through very difficult times after the Palestinian approach to the United Nations through the Security Council to seek full membership for the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas added, according to AFP.

A last-ditch international push began in New York on Sunday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations as members of the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators met in New York.

Officials met two days after Abbas said he would demand full membership of the world body for a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Asked before the meeting if either could report any progress, Clinton replied, "We are meeting to talk about the way forward." Asked if that meant no progress, she said, "I didn't say that."

Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - the Quartet - met on Sunday, an EU official said, as part of an intense effort in recent weeks to persuade the Palestinians to drop their UN plans.

The official said the diplomats were assessing the situation, but gave no further details.

The United States says it will veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for full UN membership, but former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves an an envoy for the Quartet, said on Sunday a showdown could still be averted.

Blair told reporters, "The Palestinians are here at the UN now, so the question is ... can people find a way that enables the Palestinians to take a significant step forward to statehood at the same time as not ending up in a situation where the UN replaces negotiations?"

Abbas said that he had considered proposals put forth by the Quartet to stave off the statehood bid, but they did not support the PA's goal of a sovereign Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

"We told them that any proposals which do not include a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and an end to settlement expansion are unacceptable," he was quoted by Ma'an as saying.

Abbas was scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the statehood bid on Monday in New York.

18/9/11 - Mideast Quartet envoys to meet in New York on Sunday

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Envoys from the quartet of Middle East negotiators will meet on Sunday in a last-ditch push to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a showdown over Palestinian statehood at the U.N., an EU diplomat said on Saturday.

The meeting in New York will come two days after President Mahmoud Abbas said he would demand full membership of the United Nations for a Palestinian state when he goes to the U.N. General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

"Envoys are meeting on Sunday in New York," the diplomat said.

The efforts of the quartet --- which groups the European Union, the United States, Russia and the U.N. -- are part of an intense international diplomatic push in recent weeks aimed at persuading the Palestinians to drop their U.N. plans.

Washington, and Israel, says a U.N. vote over Palestinian statehood would damage chances for peace negotiations, arguing that a state can only be created through a settlement between the two sides.

The EU, in addition to such concerns, is also facing potential embarrassment at the international forum if a vote splits its 27 members into three camps -- those backing the bid, those opposing it and a possible group of states abstaining.

Reacting to Abbas's intentions, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU has yet to decide how to act at the U.N.

"The next days are crucial," spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said. "It is for Palestinians to decide on next steps but we continue to believe that a constructive solution that can gather as much support as possible and allows for the resumption of negotiations is the best and only way to deliver the peace and two state solution the Palestinian people want."

"We will redouble our efforts together with our partners in the quartet to launch negotiations between the parties as soon as possible. This remains the only way to end the conflict," Kocijancic said.

In a televised speech on Friday, Abbas said he would request the Palestinians' "legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine."

The Palestinians say almost 20 years of on-off direct talks on statehood envisaged by interim peace accords have hit a dead end. They say reasons for this include Israel's refusal to stop expanding settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- lands it took in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and which Palestinians want, along with the Gaza Strip, for an independent state.

The last round of the U.S.-backed talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu collapsed nearly a year ago when the Jewish state declined to extend a partial moratorium on West Bank settlement building.

(Reporting by Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck; Editing by David Stamp)

17/9/11 - Abbas claims 1947 borders for Palestinian state, affirms bid to UN Security Council

DEBKAfile Special Report September 16, 2011, 8:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Mahmoud Abbas   Palestinians   Israel   UN Security Council 

Mahmoud Abbas goes to UN

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday, Sept. 16, in Ramallah that he would ask the UN Security Council next week for recognition of Palestinian statehood. Once they have a state and a flag and recognition by two-thirds of the world's nations, the Palestinians would leave all other issues open for negotiation with Israel, he said.
While citing the 1967 borders for a future Palestinian state in reference to his UN application,
Abbas stressed that Israel's "occupation" will not will not end the next day and much more remains to be done because the 1967 lines do not define the true borders - any more than the roadblocks and the settlements. The real Palestinian borders were laid down in 1947 down by the UN.  All other areas [meaning large parts of the state of Israel] are "occupied territory" which the Palestinians intend to claim.

The Palestinian leader sought to imply that the 126 governments which have recognized the Palestinian right to a state had accepted this interpretation.

His other points:
1. The Palestinian application to the UN Security Council is only one step on the road to full independence, after which "all options remain open." Its purpose is to obtain full UN membership and then return to the table for negotiation on this new basis.

2.  He emphasized the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as state capital, pledged to work for the refugees' return and strive for national unity by healing the rift with Hamas.
3.  Abbas issued a strict caution against violence demonstrations and protests, because he said this would play into Israel's hands.
A long passage was devoted to the obstacles he accused Israel of placing in the path of Palestinian independence, especially by building new settlements on the West Bank and set them against the strenuous efforts the Palestinians have made to establish the administration and institutions of the future state.
"We promised Obama to have them ready by September," he said and "so they are."
He accused Israel soldiers and settlers of letting dogs loose against Palestinians and even wild boars to destroy crops. At the same time, Abbas said he was turning to the UN not in order to isolate Israel or assail its legitimacy but only to delegitimize and terminate the occupation.

In another part of his speech, Mahmoud Abbas boasted about the democracy prevailing in the Palestinian Authority (West Bank). We respect the will of the people, he said:  "They don't have to demonstrate in the squares (a dig at the Arab Revolt)."
DEBKAfile: The last Palestinian elections took place in 2006. The president, the legislature and the municipal councils are no longer legally in office.  Abbas and the Palestinian Authority which he heads are maintained by  the Palestinian armed security forces

15/9/11 - In sharp U-turn, Palestinians to go through with UN Security Council statehood bid

DEBKAfile Special Report September 15, 2011, 4:41 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Abbas   Palestinians   Israel   UN Security Council   US   Barack Obama 

Mahmoud Abbas: Dialogue with Israel still on ice

Thursday, Sept. 15, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went back on his assurance 24 hours earlier to Saudi, European and Egyptian officials and decided to go through with his application to the UN Security Council on Sept. 23 for the admission of a Palestinian state to the world body. This was a pointed rebuff to the Obama administration after the White House sent two envoys, senior presidential Middle East adviser Dennis Ross and peace talks adviser David Hale, with an offer to renew US ties with the Palestinian leader if he recalled the application.
After the Palestinians announced their reversal, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided Thursday he would lead the Israeli delegation to the UN General Assembly and represent Israel in the debate on the Palestinian application for UN acceptance of their statehood.
Abbas has clearly followed the lead of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who Tuesday urged the Arab League to back the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN and continued to escalate his confrontational stance against Israel. Abbas was offered Turkish diplomatic and financial aid to help the PA weather its financial crisis if the Palestinians agreed to line up behind Ankara.
DEBKAfile's sources warn that with 7 days to go, this may not be the last Palestinian change of mind.

We reported Wednesday, Sept. 14 that Mahmoud Abbas had notified Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and European Union foreign executive Catherine Ashton in Cairo he had backed off his UN Security Council bid and even considering watering down his application to the UN General Assembly – possibly by dropping the "state within 1967 borders" provision from the text.
Abbas said he would make his final decision known in a public address from Ramallah Friday, Sept 16 before flying to New York to join world leaders at the UN General Assembly's 66th session which began Tuesday.

But first, he meets Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Amman for a conversation whichDEBKAfile's exclusive sources term critical, because Blair will hand him a document termed by senior Washington sources "an outline" of a new format designed to oil Palestinian wheels into unlocking the long-stalled Palestinian dialogue with Israel.

This outline has been endorsed by Washington, the EU and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. It is now subject to acceptance by Israel and the Palestinians. Moscow has not yet indicated whether it approves the document or wants changes.
By Wednesday morning, the Israeli government had not yet received a copy. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no doubt that he will be called upon for concessions extreme enough to lure the Palestinian leader back to the table. Blair is expected to deliver the document to Netanyahu some time Thursday after Abbas has seen it. To tie up the ends, senior White House envoys, Dennis Ross and David Hale, are due back in Jerusalem and Ramallah Wednesday.
During his visit to Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas was sternly warned by Saud al Faisal, Ashton and Egyptian leaders of the grave consequences awaiting the Palestinians if he forced the US to exercise its veto against their statehood at the UN Security Council.  US President Barack Obama Tuesday made it crystal clear that he "objects very strongly" to the Palestinian statehood motion as "counterproductive" and "a distraction from solving problems that can only be addressed through negotiations."

US sources report that the US President has refused to talk to Abbas for the past eight months owing to his refusal to join Israel for direct peace talks. He was advised by the Europeans, the Saudis and Egyptians this week that the US presidential boycott would almost certainly extend to fellow Palestinian leaders and US financial aid. The Palestinian Authority would thus be placed under American sanctions. However, if he withdrew his statehood bid from the Security Council and accepted the new position paper, Obama would consider restoring communications.

Tuesday, Sept. 13, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "The path to creating an independent Palestinian state lies through direct talks between Ramallah and Jerusalem – not New York," she said. Early Wednesday, the General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar reported that the Palestinians had not yet submitted their request to the General Assembly. It would therefore not come up for debate before October.
DEBKAfile's sources report that while Mahmoud Abbas appears to have been hassled into a partial climb-down from his original plan to bypass talks with Israel by gaining UN approval of Palestinian statehood, he may not have caved in completely. Neither is it clear whether Netanyahu will swallow the new blueprint Tony Blair is about to dish up.

15/9/11 - The folly of the Palestinian statehood bid

Next week, the Palestinian Authority will push the UN to declare it a state. But it's a bad idea for the Palestinian people and peace in the region, say Houriya Ahmed and Julia Pettengill.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas heads a meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee in the West Bank city of Ramallah Photo: AFP

By Houriya Ahmed and Julia Pettengill

3:57PM BST 15 Sep 2011

125 Comments

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has said that next week’s statehood bid aims to “keep hope alive” for Palestinians eager to win their independence. Yet on a practical level, the bid is not only unlikely to further the construction of an independent state, it may have the unintended and very dangerous consequence of emboldening Hamas.

Recent polls suggest that the majority of Palestinians remain united in their commitment to independence, but are increasingly ambivalent about the value of the statehood gambit, and more focused on measures which will tangibly improve their daily life. As Dr Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Taskforce on Palestine, told us: “Palestinians aren’t stupid - they know this UN bid is not going to create a Palestinian state. Now that they’ve had time to see what the costs will be, it’s clear that many Palestinians are re-evaluating the effectiveness of the bid.”

The potential loss in American aid to the PA as a result of the bid could have serious fallout for the fledgling economy of the West Bank, and may undermine both state-building efforts and public confidence in the PA. The US, which currently contributes approximately $500 million in much-needed annual aid to the PA, objects to the statehood bid on the grounds that it subverts the negotiation process with Israel, and has threatened to withdraw or severely curtail these funds if the PA goes to the UN this month. Palestinians in the West Bank got a taste of what may be to come this summer, when a short-fall in aid from Arab countries prevented the PA from paying civil servants their full salaries.

The reversal of the West Bank’s much-vaunted economic growth could alienate and undermine upwardly mobile Palestinians, whose decision to settle in an independent Palestine cannot be taken for granted. A recent poll of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem by Dr David Pollock found a surprisingly ambivalent attitude towards living in an independent Palestine, which appears primarily tied to their belief that Israel would offer a higher standard of living. For PA leaders eager to build a prosperous and productive Palestinian society, such potential middle-class flight should be particularly worrying.

It raises the question: in the absence of clear public support and with the near-certainty of financial penalty, why has Fatah decided to forge ahead on the UN route? PA President Mahmoud Abbas argues that any form of UN recognition, however symbolic, will increase their leverage over Israel. PA proponents of the UN path also appear to have privately calculated that, in the absence of negotiations, Fatah must make some kind of grand gesture to maintain their credibility and relevance, both domestically and internationally.

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Ironically, the statehood bid may in fact have the opposite effect by empowering Hamas - Fatah’s nominal partner but perennial rival. At present, Fatah and Hamas represent the most powerful forces in Palestinian politics, but despite their much vaunted “reconciliation” in May 2011, the two parties remain irreconcilably divided over their visions of a future Palestinian state: for example, while Fatah has made significant progress in countering Islamist extremism in the West Bank, Hamas has imposed Saudi-style sharia law in Gaza.

The fact remains that Palestinian independence is dependent upon a negotiated settlement with Israel, and the UN campaign has made it even less likely that Israel will return to negotiations any time soon. When Palestinians realise that a changed UN status has delayed or even hindered progress towards independence, Fatah could be - potentially fatally - discredited, and Hamas emboldened.

Indeed, Hamas may seek to channel popular anger into acts of violence which could culminate in another civil war between Fatah and Hamas, or even a third intifada. With their Syrian patrons possibly on the verge of collapse, Hamas will have a particularly strong incentive to re-assert themselves as the party of resistance. To make matters worse, this could draw other regional powers such as Egypt into the mix, as Palestinian militants did last month by attacking Israel from the Egyptian border. Far from advancing independence, the UN route appears poised to prove at best self-defeating, and at worst self-destructive.

• Houriya Ahmed and Julia Pettengill are Research Fellows at the Henry Jackson Society, and authors of the report Regional Actors and the Fatah-Hamas Unity Deal: Shifting Dynamics in the Middle East?, published in July 2011.

9/9/11 - U.S. To Veto Palestinian Statehood - Video

Sat Sep 10 2011 07:22

Uploaded by infolivetvenglish on Sep 9, 2011

 

The United States said it would veto the Palestinian's statehood plans just hours after the Palestinian Authority officially launched its campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state.

Wendy Sherman President Barack Obama's nominee for undersecretary state for policy told the Senate if any such resolution is brought to the Security Council, the U.S. will veto it.

The United States is determined to veto such a move and urges the parties to enter direct negotiations she declared.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Ramallah office on Thursday , Palestinian officials urged the leader of the international community to "exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands."

The letter said the campaign would include a series of peaceful events leading up to the September 21 opening of the UN General Assembly.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the assembly two days later.

Israeli legal experts voiced concern that the recognition of a Palestinian state could lead to Israelis being brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

8/9/11 - Palestinians officially launch statehood campaign

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH - Associated Press | AP – 9 hrs agoRELATED CONTENT

• 
  FILE- In this file photo taken on June 2, 2004, Palestinians look as the Israeli …
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  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pauses during a meeting with Palestinian doctors …

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinians on Thursday officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they would stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

Some 100 Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the U.N. offices in Ramallah for a short ceremony, where they announced their plans in a letter addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The letter urges Ban to add his "moral voice in support of the Palestinian people."

"Families of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli occupation, including those martyred, wounded and imprisoned, and countless others who were expelled from their homes or lost their homes and their property, hope that you will exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands," it says.

The letter was handed over by Latifa Abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who lost one son in fighting with Israel and has seven other sons in Israeli prisons because of alleged militant activities.

Officials said Abu Hmeid was selected to deliver the document because her personal story reflects the plight of the Palestinians. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, her house has been twice demolished by Israeli authorities as punishment for her sons' activities, they said.

The Palestinians have decided to turn to the U.N. to recognize their independence after two decades of unsuccessful peace efforts with Israel. The latest round of talks broke down a year ago.

The campaign seeks recognition of an independent Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel rejects a return to its 1967 lines.

While any U.N. vote will be largely symbolic, the Palestinians believe a strong international endorsement will boost their position and put pressure on Israel should negotiations resume. Israel has been lobbying the international community to oppose the vote, saying peace can only be achieved through negotiations.

The letter says the campaign will include a series of peaceful events "in various international cities and capitals" leading up to the Sept. 21 opening of the General Assembly. Two days later, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the gathering in New York and ask for admission to the United Nations.

It remains unclear whether the Palestinians will turn to the Security Council or the General Assembly.

The Council needs nine votes out of 15 and no veto from any of its permanent members to pass a decision. However, the United States, which opposes the Palestinian bid, is expected to veto any request in the Council.

The Palestinians could then seek admission as a "nonmember state" of the General Assembly, like the Vatican.

Approval in the Assembly, which is dominated by developing nations sympathetic to the Palestinians, is assured. But the vote would not be legally binding. The Palestinians say they will continue their campaign until they gain full U.N. membership.

Although the Palestinians say their campaign will be peaceful, Israeli military officials fear that mass demonstrations in the West Bank could turn violent.

Security forces have been preparing for the possibility of violence, conducting exercises and stockpiling what they say is "non-lethal" riot-control equipment like tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades.

Israeli West Bank settlers, meanwhile, came under suspicion Thursday in the latest of a string of attacks against Palestinians and the Israeli military in the West Bank.

Two cars were torched and Hebrew-language slogans were spray-painted on a mosque in the Nablus area, and three dozen trees were uprooted from Palestinian farmland in the same area, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military said it was investigating.

No one claimed responsibility for the acts, but settlers have carried out similar acts before, in some cases in retaliation for Israeli government actions against settlers, a practice they call "price tag." Earlier this week, a West Bank mosque was set afire.

Settlers are also suspected of having infiltrated an Israeli military base early Wednesday, smashing windows, slashing the tires of about a dozen vehicles and spray-painting graffiti alluding to the demolition of three homes in an unauthorized settler outpost earlier this week.

Separately, the military demolished five West Bank shacks and three water cisterns it said Palestinians built without authorization in the West Bank. U.N. officials said 20 people were left homeless.

The demolitions occurred days after military officials had promised to halt the practice, saying the policy was not equally enforced in Jewish settlements. Military officials did not return messages.