J Street position on Palestinian application for full UN membership: J Street

J Street position on Palestinian application for full UN membership

May 1st, 2012

American views

Ziad Asali (President of American Task Force on Palestine) writes in The Washington Post that the all parties should work to avoid a ‘potentially dangerous’ fight over statehood at the UN in September.
Tal Becker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy explores the implications of the UN recognition of Palestinian statehood.
David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy analyzes the geography and demography of the West Bank to consider how land swaps, in the context of a settlement, can successfully meet critical needs of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Palestinian views:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas 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.
Mahmoud Abbas on his preference for negotiations over a UN vote.
Mahmoud Abbas makes the case for Palestinian statehood in an New York Times op-ed, writing, ‘Negotiations remain our first option, but due to their failure we are now compelled to turn to the international community to assist us in preserving the opportunity for a peaceful and just end to the conflict.’

Israeli views

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chaired by Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz, released a report criticizing Israel’s preparation for and actions leading up to the upcoming United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood.
Uri Savir, president of the Peres Center for Peace and former chief negotiator of the Oslo Accords, calls on Netanyahu and Abbas to take bold steps in line with Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to the Knesset in 1977.
A Haaretz editorial argues that, ‘As the leader of a party seen as holding the balance of power in the coalition’s fulcrum,’ Ehud Barak must press for negotiations ahead of the UN vote.
President Shimon Peres warns that Israel is ‘doomed’ absent negotiations resulting in a peace agreement with the Palestinians in the near future.
In an interview with Newsweek, Livni said that a UN declaration recognizing Palestinian statehood will create ‘neither a state nor peace.’

International Views

The G8 calls for renewed negotiations under Obama’s outline.
Irwin Cotler calls on Netanyahu to enter direct negotiations with Abbas based on Obama’s principles outlined in May and at the G8.
A group of 60 international lawyers sent a letter to the UN Secretary General warning that a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood would violate past agreements and resolutions 242 and 338.
Robert Serry called for a settlement freeze and said that stuck negotiations are playing into Palestinian unilateralism.