Israel warns of unilateral steps if PA seeks UN statehood -Tovah Lazaroff
Israel will pursue its own unilateral steps if the Palestinians do not return to the negotiating table and instead seek UN support for unilateral moves to declare a state within the pre- 1967 lines, a government source told The Jerusalem Post late Thursday night.
“If the Palestinians think that unilateral moves are a one-way street, they are sadly mistaken. It is an option that both sides have,” said the source.
There was some speculation that Israel may be considering reviving aspects of former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s “convergence” ideas for a unilateral withdrawal from isolated parts of the West Bank, evacuating settlements and deploying soldiers there instead.
Palestinians are tilting increasingly toward unilateral moves.
The government source told the Post that “Israel is against unilateral steps. Israel believes that all problems should be solved around the negotiating table, but if the Palestinians choose unilateral steps, they can expect Israel to respond in kind.”
Israel is said to be exploring a number of unilateral options, but the source would not specify which.
Other ideas include the possibility that Israel would no longer seek an “end of conflict” declaration from the Palestinians — which would presumably lower the price of a non-final deal. The Palestinians would get a state in most of the West Bank, with international safeguards about a future deal, but decisions on Jerusalem and refugees would be put off.
The Palestinians are said to adamantly reject any such scenario, fearing that they would lose any further leverage and end up with a mini-state.
[Jerusalem Post]
A Unilateral Dead End -Editorial
Palestinians have often flirted with the idea of gaining through unilateral declarations or UN action what they couldn't get through negotiations with Israel. That was a bad idea in the past and it's a bad idea today; the fact remains that the only route to the two-state solution Palestinian leaders say they support is through direct negotiations.
No Israeli government could accept a Palestinian state created by fiat. No Israeli leader could accept the validity of that state without a formal recognition of Israel's right to exist, strict assurances the new state will end incitement, and unequivocal agreement on all the critical issues.
The Obama administration would be making a tragic mistake if it did not speak out - forcefully and without reservation - against any unilateral Palestinian action to sidestep negotiations. Not speaking out now can only encourage Palestinian leaders to believe in the chimera of unilateral action as a shortcut to statehood when, in fact, it is the worst kind of dead end.
(New York Jewish Week)
Palestinian Rejectionism Main Obstacle to Peace -Danny Ayalon
With the Israeli-Palestinian peace process once more sadly hanging by a thread, too few have acknowledged that the Palestinians have quietly been allowed to regress from the conventional positions, many of which they formerly accepted, that are essential for any peace process. For example, the murder of four Israelis by Palestinian terrorists on 31 August, on the eve of negotiations, did not induce Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, to withdraw from peace talks. Yet the construction of a few apartments in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, has been viewed by many as a justifiable excuse for the Palestinians to walk out.
At a recent Palestinian Donors' Conference at the UN, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad could not even agree to insert the words "two states for two peoples" in the text of the conference summary. This standard formula was deemed unacceptable to the most moderate elements of the PA. If the Palestinian leadership has still not come to terms with the enduring existence of Israel as a Jewish state, everything else is hollow.
(Guardian-UK)
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