Israel and Palestinian Map

"LandepNews"

Israel and Palestinian Map

United States envoys to the Middle East visit Israel in an attempt to convince the Palestinians to renounce their bid to the United Nations, where they want to ask for the recognition of their state as a full member of the international organization.

David Ross, a White House official, and David Hale, Middle East envoy, are holding talks separately with the Palestinians and Israelis in order to avert the Palestinian plan.

The United States and Israel both oppose the plan of the Palestinians and demanded that the negotiations be resumed, so that the borders of the new state be decided at the negotiation table.

Benyamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations now, without preconditions. Abbas refused such a proposition because of the continuing of the settlement policy implemented by Israel.

Abbas said that he would not resume talks unless the settlement policies are being stopped by Israel. Palestinians demand that their country be established within the borders before 1967, composed of East Jerusalem, as capital, the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Abbas, known for his moderation, said that the first priority, the second priority, the third priority of the Palestinian Authority is negotiation, but that the negotiations cannot be resumed as long as the settlements continue to be built in both West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In order to become a full member of the United Nations, the Palestinian Authority should pass the vote in the Security Council, which is habilitated to recommend the candidate country to be voted in as a full member.

Mahmoud Abbas

The United States promised to use its veto in order to block the vote in the Security Council, which leaves the Palestinians with the option of a symbolic vote in the General Assembly, which is expected to pass, though it may not bare any bonding relevance.

Even so, such a vote on the statehood of Palestinians, symbolic as it may be, could trigger a very serious reaction of boycott on the part of international community. Several countries have already announced that they would boycott Israel over this.

Israeli Defense Forces are preparing the people in the West Bank to defend themselves against the possible violent outbreaks in the territory after September 20, when the vote is expected to be cast. They said that they should not be provoked, because they would respond very strongly to any possible attacks.

Israeli cabinet does not seem too preoccupied with the bid of Palestinians, nor do they fear the boycott on their economy, though such a boycott would most likely add to the social problems Israel already has, as hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated through the summer against the neo-liberal policies of Netanyahu.

Since the negotiations have been resumed in September 2010, two rounds have been conducted, one in Washington, and another in Egypt, and then they collapsed on September 26, after the settlement freeze, imposed 10 months earlier, was terminated and the constructions were resumed.

Every attempt to resume negotiations was unsuccessful, because the Palestinians did not want to admit the idea of continuing to build settlements. Furthermore, they complained that the settlement building policies were designed so that the West Bank be fragmented, thus annulling the possibility that it would become a consistent territory of the new state.

This prompted Mahmoud Abbas to say that the Israelis don’t really want a state of the Palestinians. He received the reply from the Israeli foreign minister that said that the Palestinians are those who do not want a two-state solution but rather a state of Palestinians on the place occupied now by Israel.

UN Headquarters in New York City

Israel demanded that its status as Jewish state be recognized, something that the Palestinians cannot do, because that would mean that no Arab can live within the borders of Israel, not to mention that the problem of the refugees would thus be without solution.

Amid all these mutual accusations that never seem to end, and compose practically the core of the political relation between Palestinians and Israelis, came the proposition made earlier in the year by Barack Obama, who proposed a swap solution that would see to it that the Palestinians receive the exact amount of land as comprised within the borders before 1967, while Israel could keep its settlements.

The plan seemed unacceptable at first, but last month Netanyahu announced he agreed to the plan. Still, the solution is worthless as long as the settlements are being built inside the territory of the West Bank, fragmenting it.

The Palestinian state has already been recognized by countries like Brazil, Ecuador, Russia, Argentina, and it is expected to be voted by many countries at the UN General Assembly, though it is possible that not as a full member.

In fact, there is still a debate within Palestinian leadership on whether to apply for full membership or for the status of observer.

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