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Palestinian president requests statehood; Israel calls for talks
By the CNN Wire Staff
Fri September 23, 2011
Palestinian president requests statehood; Israel calls for talks - CNN.com
United Nations (CNN) -- Palestinian President Mahoud Abbas put forth a historic U.N. membership bid for an independent state of Palestine on Friday; a move Israel says is premature without direct talks that address its longstanding security concerns.
The formal application -- viewed as a largely symbolic gesture because an American veto is all but assured should the request come to a vote in the Security Council -- drew applause in the assembly when the Palestinian leader raised the document at the podium during his speech at the 66th annual session of the General Assembly.
The time has come for a "Palestinian Spring" to join the Arab Spring in reshaping the Middle East, he said. "My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity."
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, later taking his turn to address the General Assembly, said Palestinians are looking for a "state without peace," ignoring security concerns important to Israel.
He said Palestinians are not armed only with their "hopes and dreams," as Abbas said in his speech. To that he added "10,000 missiles, and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons flowing into Gaza."
"Palestinians should first make peace with Israel, and then get their state," he declared, adding that peace must arrive through a two-state solution that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.
If that occurs, Israel "will be the first" to recognize Palestinian statehood, the prime minister said.
Representatives from the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- a group commonly referred to as the Quartet for the Middle East -- discussed the request later Friday, and issued a statement saying the bid is now before the U.N. Security Council.
The group called for a "preparatory meeting," to take place within one month and intended to outline how peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders might take place. Each side would then be tasked with producing a comprehensive proposal on territory and security issues within three months, and "to have made substantial progress with six months," the statement said.
The timetable for an agreement is not to exceed the end of 2012, countering any anticipation of immediate change in the region.
The Security Council is expected to meet Monday to further discuss the issue.
Abbas' speech, meanwhile, provoked cheers and chants from flag-waving Palestinians who watched the address on a big-screen television in a square in Ramallah, the West Bank.
Moments after handing over the formal letter seeking full United Nations membership, Abbas said Israel continues to stymie peace and flout international law, and he called on United Nations to act urgently.
"We aspire for and seek a greater and more effective role for the United Nations in working to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in our region that ensures the inalienable, legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people," said the Palestinian leader.
His speech was closely watched across the Middle East. The hundreds who gathered in Ramallah greeted the news that he had formally filed the request with cheers, song and dance.
Demonstrations took place Friday in New York and in cities across the Middle East as demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in a show of solidarity.
U.S. Embassies across the region warned citizens to avoid the expected demonstrations, saying they could turn violent with little warning.
An increased police presence was visible in Jerusalem, where the military had stockpiled riot-control gear against the possibility of greater violence.
Ahead of the speech, Palestinian youths lobbed rocks and bottles at Israeli security forces at a West Bank security checkpoint leading to Jerusalem, a fairly routine Friday occurrence. There were no injuries, but rock-throwing between Israeli citizens and Palestinians in Qusra led to three injuries, one of them fatal, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
No immediate action is expected on Abbas' request that Palestine become a member state of the international body, and such a U.N. declaration is almost certainly doomed to failure because of the United States' veto power in the Security Council.
"Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.," President Barack Obama said in a speech to delegates at the General Assembly earlier this week. "If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now."
Obama and Abbas met Wednesday as part of behind-the-scenes wrangling that has accompanied the controversial request. The American president said he supports Palestinian statehood, but reiterated a long-standing U.S. position that Israel must be part of the discussions.
Israel has described the bid as counterproductive, and has called for an immediate resumption of talks to begin in New York and to be continued in Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Negotiations broke down last year.
And while a U.S. veto would block the bid for full U.N. membership, the General Assembly could still vote to upgrade the status of Palestinians, who currently hold the status of non-voting observer "entity."
The body could change that status to permanent observer "state," identical to the Vatican's standing at the United Nations.
Despite a breathtaking year of change that has seen popular revolutions mark political upheaval in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other nations, talk of Palestinian statehood dominated the General Assembly's session this week.
"The membership effort sends a strong message by Abbas to Palestinians that he is working to advance the Palestinians' cause," said Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
"Right now, he's thinking about his domestic political situation in order to maintain his position," Cook said. "So he's not eaten alive."
Hamas, the dominant of two Palestinian political groups, has maintained that neither a U.N. application nor direct negotiations with Israel would provide the Palestinian people "with what they're looking for."
"Abbas' emotional speech succeeded in moving people's feelings but his description of Palestinian suffering is different from reality," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Hamas controls Gaza while Abbas' Fatah organization holds the West Bank.
---------- Post added at 12:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------
Why the U.N. cannot create Palestine
By David Makovsky, Special to CNN
Fri September 23, 2011
Why the U.N. cannot create Palestine - CNN.com
Editor's note: David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he directs the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
(CNN) -- The U.N. speeches of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are behind us. There are doubts that Abbas will even be able to secure the necessary nine of 15 votes in the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution on statehood, regardless of the expected U.S. veto.
But the resolution raises another question. If the United Nations created Israel in the past, why shouldn't it create the state of Palestine today?
This argument bears a certain allure, but does not apply in today's context. A dignified two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis can only be reached by an agreement between the two sides to end their tragic conflict.
The United Nations created the state of Israel in 1947 because Britain sought an exit from the region. Its resources and energies depleted by World War II, London was no longer interested in shouldering its post- World War I responsibilities as the mandate power to administer the territory. Britain had committed itself in 1917 to a "national Jewish home" in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which it then used its internationally backed mandate to effect. But Britain soon tired of being caught in the middle of conflicting Jewish and Arab nationalism.
In 1947, Britain sought the assistance of the newly founded United Nations to make its exit from this part of the Middle East. Today, however, Israelis and Palestinians cannot do the same. In a two-state solution, they will be living together in a very narrow swath of territory -- the two states will measure merely 50 miles wide from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
Yet, if there is an overriding lesson from the 1947 U.N. vote, it is that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.
It was the pragmatism of the Jewish advocates -- known as Zionists -- that enabled their success. In 1947, the U.N. called for a two-state solution that would divide the land between the Jews and the Arabs. Neither side would be fully satisfied by this arrangement, but it at least addressed some of their concerns.
Despite the resolution's call for internationalizing Jerusalem, mainstream Zionists accepted what became known as the Partition Plan. Although domestic critics attacked this camp, led by David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, for its moderation, members evinced considerable political courage and were not deterred. In contrast, the Arab camp viewed the Partition Plan as unjust in its call to share the territory, as they believed that the Zionists had no right to the land whatsoever.
The Zionists accepted half the loaf, and despite Arabs attacking it on the day of its birth, Israel flourished. Because the Arabs refused its half of the loaf, Palestine was never born.
The Palestinians missed a similar opportunity for statehood in 2000, when Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat rejected what became known as the Clinton Parameters, and again in 2008, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered President Abbas a deal that was even more generous. To this day, Abbas has never explained why he refused Olmert's offer, raising the question of whether the Palestinians will ever accept any deal.
It is for this reason that Israelis often quote their legendary statesman Abba Eban, declaring that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. "
Today, it is the Netanyahu government that is being flogged with the Eban dictum, but the only Palestinian alternative to Abbas is the radical Hamas.
Netanyahu finds this choice unfair, because he believes he has consistently begged Abbas to return to negotiations, yet Abbas has only agreed to do so for two weeks in the past two and a half years. Netanyahu suspects a direct correlation between 1947, 2000, 2008, and today: that Palestinians are avoiding peace as a favorable track to statehood.
Meanwhile, given his suspicion of Netanyahu's intentions, Abbas fears that any resumption of negotiations would inevitably meander, damaging his popularity among the Palestinian people. This is one of the reasons why he is appealing to the United Nations.
One proposal to put talks back on track, under discussion behind the scenes, is that negotiations be guided by President Obama's key Middle East speeches in May, seeking to solve borders with land exchanges, as well as security arrangements and mutual recognition, which would lend structure and direction to the process. There are signs that Netanyahu and Abbas are seriously considering this option. Netanyahu hinted to it in Friday's speech, and this seems to be the direction of the long-awaited statement from the Quartet for MIddle East Peace -- calling for intensified talks -- released on Friday afternoon.
The circumstances surrounding the Palestinian bid at the U.N. are very different from those surrounding the British appeal in 1947. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are seeking to exit the region. The United Nations drama is misplaced: Peace needs to be made in the Middle East, not the Northeast. The suspicions and historical claims of both sides can only be resolved between them, as they will be the ones who must live with the results.
The leaders of both sides should look to 1947 for a lesson on the importance of political pragmatism, rather than an all-or-nothing approach. As President Obama said this week at the U.N., there are no shortcuts to peace.
By the CNN Wire Staff
Fri September 23, 2011
Palestinian president requests statehood; Israel calls for talks - CNN.com
United Nations (CNN) -- Palestinian President Mahoud Abbas put forth a historic U.N. membership bid for an independent state of Palestine on Friday; a move Israel says is premature without direct talks that address its longstanding security concerns.
The formal application -- viewed as a largely symbolic gesture because an American veto is all but assured should the request come to a vote in the Security Council -- drew applause in the assembly when the Palestinian leader raised the document at the podium during his speech at the 66th annual session of the General Assembly.
The time has come for a "Palestinian Spring" to join the Arab Spring in reshaping the Middle East, he said. "My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity."
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, later taking his turn to address the General Assembly, said Palestinians are looking for a "state without peace," ignoring security concerns important to Israel.
He said Palestinians are not armed only with their "hopes and dreams," as Abbas said in his speech. To that he added "10,000 missiles, and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons flowing into Gaza."
"Palestinians should first make peace with Israel, and then get their state," he declared, adding that peace must arrive through a two-state solution that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.
If that occurs, Israel "will be the first" to recognize Palestinian statehood, the prime minister said.
Representatives from the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- a group commonly referred to as the Quartet for the Middle East -- discussed the request later Friday, and issued a statement saying the bid is now before the U.N. Security Council.
The group called for a "preparatory meeting," to take place within one month and intended to outline how peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders might take place. Each side would then be tasked with producing a comprehensive proposal on territory and security issues within three months, and "to have made substantial progress with six months," the statement said.
The timetable for an agreement is not to exceed the end of 2012, countering any anticipation of immediate change in the region.
The Security Council is expected to meet Monday to further discuss the issue.
Abbas' speech, meanwhile, provoked cheers and chants from flag-waving Palestinians who watched the address on a big-screen television in a square in Ramallah, the West Bank.
Moments after handing over the formal letter seeking full United Nations membership, Abbas said Israel continues to stymie peace and flout international law, and he called on United Nations to act urgently.
"We aspire for and seek a greater and more effective role for the United Nations in working to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in our region that ensures the inalienable, legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people," said the Palestinian leader.
His speech was closely watched across the Middle East. The hundreds who gathered in Ramallah greeted the news that he had formally filed the request with cheers, song and dance.
Demonstrations took place Friday in New York and in cities across the Middle East as demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in a show of solidarity.
U.S. Embassies across the region warned citizens to avoid the expected demonstrations, saying they could turn violent with little warning.
An increased police presence was visible in Jerusalem, where the military had stockpiled riot-control gear against the possibility of greater violence.
Ahead of the speech, Palestinian youths lobbed rocks and bottles at Israeli security forces at a West Bank security checkpoint leading to Jerusalem, a fairly routine Friday occurrence. There were no injuries, but rock-throwing between Israeli citizens and Palestinians in Qusra led to three injuries, one of them fatal, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
No immediate action is expected on Abbas' request that Palestine become a member state of the international body, and such a U.N. declaration is almost certainly doomed to failure because of the United States' veto power in the Security Council.
"Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.," President Barack Obama said in a speech to delegates at the General Assembly earlier this week. "If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now."
Obama and Abbas met Wednesday as part of behind-the-scenes wrangling that has accompanied the controversial request. The American president said he supports Palestinian statehood, but reiterated a long-standing U.S. position that Israel must be part of the discussions.
Israel has described the bid as counterproductive, and has called for an immediate resumption of talks to begin in New York and to be continued in Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Negotiations broke down last year.
And while a U.S. veto would block the bid for full U.N. membership, the General Assembly could still vote to upgrade the status of Palestinians, who currently hold the status of non-voting observer "entity."
The body could change that status to permanent observer "state," identical to the Vatican's standing at the United Nations.
Despite a breathtaking year of change that has seen popular revolutions mark political upheaval in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other nations, talk of Palestinian statehood dominated the General Assembly's session this week.
"The membership effort sends a strong message by Abbas to Palestinians that he is working to advance the Palestinians' cause," said Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
"Right now, he's thinking about his domestic political situation in order to maintain his position," Cook said. "So he's not eaten alive."
Hamas, the dominant of two Palestinian political groups, has maintained that neither a U.N. application nor direct negotiations with Israel would provide the Palestinian people "with what they're looking for."
"Abbas' emotional speech succeeded in moving people's feelings but his description of Palestinian suffering is different from reality," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Hamas controls Gaza while Abbas' Fatah organization holds the West Bank.
---------- Post added at 12:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------
Why the U.N. cannot create Palestine
By David Makovsky, Special to CNN
Fri September 23, 2011
Why the U.N. cannot create Palestine - CNN.com
Editor's note: David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he directs the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
(CNN) -- The U.N. speeches of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are behind us. There are doubts that Abbas will even be able to secure the necessary nine of 15 votes in the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution on statehood, regardless of the expected U.S. veto.
But the resolution raises another question. If the United Nations created Israel in the past, why shouldn't it create the state of Palestine today?
This argument bears a certain allure, but does not apply in today's context. A dignified two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis can only be reached by an agreement between the two sides to end their tragic conflict.
The United Nations created the state of Israel in 1947 because Britain sought an exit from the region. Its resources and energies depleted by World War II, London was no longer interested in shouldering its post- World War I responsibilities as the mandate power to administer the territory. Britain had committed itself in 1917 to a "national Jewish home" in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which it then used its internationally backed mandate to effect. But Britain soon tired of being caught in the middle of conflicting Jewish and Arab nationalism.
In 1947, Britain sought the assistance of the newly founded United Nations to make its exit from this part of the Middle East. Today, however, Israelis and Palestinians cannot do the same. In a two-state solution, they will be living together in a very narrow swath of territory -- the two states will measure merely 50 miles wide from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
Yet, if there is an overriding lesson from the 1947 U.N. vote, it is that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.
It was the pragmatism of the Jewish advocates -- known as Zionists -- that enabled their success. In 1947, the U.N. called for a two-state solution that would divide the land between the Jews and the Arabs. Neither side would be fully satisfied by this arrangement, but it at least addressed some of their concerns.
Despite the resolution's call for internationalizing Jerusalem, mainstream Zionists accepted what became known as the Partition Plan. Although domestic critics attacked this camp, led by David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, for its moderation, members evinced considerable political courage and were not deterred. In contrast, the Arab camp viewed the Partition Plan as unjust in its call to share the territory, as they believed that the Zionists had no right to the land whatsoever.
The Zionists accepted half the loaf, and despite Arabs attacking it on the day of its birth, Israel flourished. Because the Arabs refused its half of the loaf, Palestine was never born.
The Palestinians missed a similar opportunity for statehood in 2000, when Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat rejected what became known as the Clinton Parameters, and again in 2008, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered President Abbas a deal that was even more generous. To this day, Abbas has never explained why he refused Olmert's offer, raising the question of whether the Palestinians will ever accept any deal.
It is for this reason that Israelis often quote their legendary statesman Abba Eban, declaring that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. "
Today, it is the Netanyahu government that is being flogged with the Eban dictum, but the only Palestinian alternative to Abbas is the radical Hamas.
Netanyahu finds this choice unfair, because he believes he has consistently begged Abbas to return to negotiations, yet Abbas has only agreed to do so for two weeks in the past two and a half years. Netanyahu suspects a direct correlation between 1947, 2000, 2008, and today: that Palestinians are avoiding peace as a favorable track to statehood.
Meanwhile, given his suspicion of Netanyahu's intentions, Abbas fears that any resumption of negotiations would inevitably meander, damaging his popularity among the Palestinian people. This is one of the reasons why he is appealing to the United Nations.
One proposal to put talks back on track, under discussion behind the scenes, is that negotiations be guided by President Obama's key Middle East speeches in May, seeking to solve borders with land exchanges, as well as security arrangements and mutual recognition, which would lend structure and direction to the process. There are signs that Netanyahu and Abbas are seriously considering this option. Netanyahu hinted to it in Friday's speech, and this seems to be the direction of the long-awaited statement from the Quartet for MIddle East Peace -- calling for intensified talks -- released on Friday afternoon.
The circumstances surrounding the Palestinian bid at the U.N. are very different from those surrounding the British appeal in 1947. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are seeking to exit the region. The United Nations drama is misplaced: Peace needs to be made in the Middle East, not the Northeast. The suspicions and historical claims of both sides can only be resolved between them, as they will be the ones who must live with the results.
The leaders of both sides should look to 1947 for a lesson on the importance of political pragmatism, rather than an all-or-nothing approach. As President Obama said this week at the U.N., there are no shortcuts to peace.
