Abbas: 1967 lines, settlements freeze could stop UN bid

[bemildred]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday set two conditions for abandoning his plan to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state in September: acceptance of the 1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution and a cessation of settlement construction.

Addressing a group of Muslim religious leaders in Ramallah, Abbas said that the statehood bid was not aimed at "isolating" Israel or clashing with the US.

"We want to fulfill our dream of achieving official recognition of our Palestinian state with full sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967 and a full membership in the UN." Abbas said that the statehood bid would lay the foundations for peace, justice and coexistence "instead of repression and aggression."

The Palestinians, he added, "want to put an end to the conflict and the occupation, which is the longest in modern history."

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=235634

[Jefferson23]

1. That's a smart hand.

btw, JPost changed the title since you posted.

PA set on UN statehood bid unless Israel meets their terms
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=235634

[bemildred]

2. Just reiterating what has been said ad nauseum.

I suppose in the midst of a media war you have to keep doing that, or people will get all confused.

The Israeli media don't seem to worry much about editing headlines after the fact, and on the whole that seems fine to me, as long as people don't have a cow over the change, and the headline still works,

The subtlety of that change in spin is interesting though.

[Jefferson23]

3. "The subtlety of that change in spin is interesting though." I thought so too.n/t

[azurnoir]

5. must create the proper impression you know n/t

[Jefferson23]

7. Settlement freeze was too specific and reasonable, better to go with 'terms'. n/t

[Ken Burch]

4. If the Israeli government rejected this, it would be ADMITTING

That it doesn't want the Palestinians to have a real state...since a Palestinian state can only survive it it's based on the 1967 lines.

[aranthus]

6. Nonsense.

The '67 lines are completely arbitrary.

[Ken Burch]

9. They are the only possible lines that give a Palestinian state any chance for survival

To be viable, a Palestinian state MUST

A)Be contiguous, at least as regards the West Bank(the Likudnik insistence on keeping Ariel would make that impossible and would mean that Israel would perpetually control transit routes from one part of the West Bank to another, which would be an intolerable violation of Palestinian sovereignty and something no other nation on Earth would ever be asked to accept);

B)Be free of IDF troops(because all countries must be free of hostile troops from other countries if they are to be truly sovereign);

C)Have absolute and uninterruptable control of its own instructure and of access to water and electricity;

A two-state solution can only work if the Israeli government does NOT insist on putting poison pills in the solution(such as IDF garrisons in the Jordan River Valley or Israeli control of the Palestinian water supply).

[sabbat hunter]

8. I agree for the most part

That the Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 cease fire lines, except for the old city of jerusalem. I fail to see why that should go to a Palestine. It was supposed to be an international city, but the UN failed to defend it, or fight to free it from Jordanian rule in the years before 1967. Since 1967 Israel has ruled it and for the most part all religions have had access to their holy sites.

So can anyone give me a good explanation of why the old city should be part of Palestine, other than it happened to be on the other side of the 67 cease fire lines?

[Dick Dastardly]

10. If the Palestinian government rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish state it would be ADMITTING

That it doesn't really want a peaceful two state solution and doesn't want the Jews to have a real state, but instead it wants a two stage solution leading to the eventual dissolution of Israel.

[Ken Burch]

11. There's no difference between recognizing Israel that way and just recognizing Israel

Israel doesn't have to be recognized as a "Jewish state" to survive. Recognition of the state itself does that.

The PA recognized Israel in 1994, so the recognition issue has already been put to rest.

Bibi just wants to make the PA crawl.