U.S. Says Palestinian UN Bid Jeopardizes Peace Process

A Palestinian bid to upgrade its UN status would jeopardize the peace process with Israel, the U.S. said on Monday, arguing that a Palestinian state can only be created through direct talks. “Unilateral actions,  including initiatives to grant Palestinians non-member state observer status at the United Nations, would only jeopardize the peace process and complicate efforts to return the parties to direct negotiations,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told the Security Council.

“Any efforts to use international fora to prejudge final status issues that can only be resolved directly by the parties will neither improve the daily lives of Palestinians nor foster the trust essential to make progress towards a two-state solution,” she said

Meanwhile, .Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor told the Security Council on Monday as follows:

-Last April, Israel put a serious and comprehensive proposal on the table to the Palestinians in Amman. The Palestinians never responded. They walked away. And the world said nothing.

– Instead of sitting with Israel in direct negotiations, the Palestinian leadership is pursuing the path of unilateralism at the UN. This is no road to real statehood. It is a march of folly. Peace must be negotiated. It cannot be imposed from the outside.

– The Palestinians’ unilateral actions are a clear breach of every agreement that they have signed with Israel, including the Oslo Accords, the Interim Agreement, and the Paris Protocol. Every Member State that lends its hand to supporting Palestinian unilateralism at the UN will be responsible for the grave consequences that follow.

– How can Israel be expected to abide by the same agreements that the Palestinian leadership ignores whenever it is convenient? Would you make painful sacrifices – would you give up tangibles – in exchange for pieces of paper that the other side has proven more than willing to throw into the garbage?

– A General Assembly resolution will not pave the road to peace. It will affix a seal of approval onto an entity that does not meet the  most basic requirements for statehood.

{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}