UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations today to recognize a state for his people, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only direct negotiations could deliver peace.
Abbas handed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter requesting full U.N. membership, which the Security Council will consider on Monday. The United States has vowed to use its veto if it comes to a vote.
“I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership in the United Nations and our admission as an independent state,” Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly, which gave him a standing ovation.
Trying to head off a clash in the Security Council, a quartet of Middle East mediators urged a return to peace talks within four weeks, “substantial progress” within six months and an agreement to be struck within a year.
The Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — asked Israel and the Palestinians to submit proposals on territory and security within three months.
Previous proposed timetables for negotiations, such as a one-year deadline set by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007 and one by Obama a year ago, have run into the sand.
Abbas’ statehood ploy exposes waning U.S. influence in a region shaken by Arab revolts and shifting alliances that have pushed Israel, still militarily strong, deeper into isolation.
In their speeches, Abbas and Netanyahu both said they extended their hands to the other party, but each blamed their opponents for the failure of past peace efforts.
“We cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions,” Netanyahu said, demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, something they reject because they say that would prejudice the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Netanyahu offered to meet Abbas immediately in New York, minutes after Abbas said settlement activity must cease first.
LOSS OF FAITH
Abbas’ statehood request reflects a loss of faith after 20 years of failed peace talks sponsored by the United States, Israel’s main ally, and alarm at relentless Israeli settlement expansion eating into occupied land Palestinians want for a state.
“This (settlement) policy will destroy the chances of achieving a two-state solution and … threatens to undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even end its existence,” Abbas declared.
It was the first time he has spoken so starkly of the PA’s possible demise, highlighting the predicament faced by a body set up as a state-in-waiting but now seen by its critics as little more than a big municipality, managing the civilian affairs of the main Palestinian cities under Israeli occupation.
Dissolution of the PA would throw responsibility for ruling all of the West Bank back to Israel as the occupying power.
Israeli and U.S. politicians have threatened financial reprisals that could cripple the PA, the source of 150,000 jobs.
Israeli delegates stayed in the hall during Abbas’ speech, which was punctuated by applause, especially when he recalled his predecessor Yasser Arafat’s 1974 admonition to the United Nations: “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”
