Palestinians demand immediate statehood to counter Israeli 'unilateralism'

Thank God the Palestinians have no authority to demand anything of anyone other than their own people. May the Lord forgive them for their arrogance.

Why should Israel make any concessions to a peace process that is unlikely to succeed; as it has not succeeded for the last 60 years? Why expect success this time? Moreover, Hamas is not in the game so the result of discussions with West Bank Palestine alone cannot bring peace to all the parties; and two out of three ain't good enough. The Palestinians cannot even make peace among themselves. So what is the purpose of the discussion? And Oh by the way what about a concesion on Shalit? What about Israel's right to exist as a free and independent Jewish nation? If God willing by some unlikely miracle a Peace agreement were to be achieved I would fear for the settlers. What will they be required to do then? If I were a settler I would be building fortress walls around the facilities.

"Israel's settlement enterprise ... is nothing but a premeditated process to kill the possibility of an independent Palestinian state," Erekat said. The Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is right on point and what he said has been previously by others , including Menachem Begin's own son Binyamin in the following: "In strategic terms, the settlements (in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) are of no importance." What makes them important, he added, was that "they constitute an obstacle, an unsurmountable obstacle to the establishment of an independent Arab State west of the river Jordan." --Binyamin Begin, Thus, Erekat and Palestinian officials are right to push for an international counter to Israel contin-ued aggression in East Jerusalem to build more housing units by demanding immediately recog- nizing of a Palestinian state. People are fed up with Israeli aggression and its officials have loss international credibility to be fair and just in their negotiations to bring forth a Pale- stinian state... Hence the UN body must act before there is utter outrage in the streets denoucing Israel , the burn- ing of its flag, the boycotting of its officials & calls to cut off its aid and the handling of Israeli goods and services worldwide....Dutch

And once it does, if Israel doesn't accept it and prevents it's establishment...the boycotts will start, and the U.S. will only be able to protect Israel for so long before it becomes too much of a burden on its international image and standing. UNSC sanctions will be destined to follow with a U.S. abstention.

They'd better accept any deal, while there is land left to call a Palelestinian State. At the rate the Pals have refused generous "gifts" even after being defeated time and time again. It goes to show that they are not the most "clever" people in the world. They have rejected concession after concession, time and time again. Amazing

2100 in a week? Can you imagine how much that is? Thats about 5000 people, a small town. One of those every week? Two weeks? And new homes for 5000 people are barely even mentioned, in a left-leaning paper, that just goes show the extent of the settlement building. This is full scale colonialisation.

Netanyahu is not trying to hide his contempt for peace, why wait any longer?.

The West will complain, the UN will denounce and there will be negative consequences; in the SHORT TERM. We are already hated by the Muslim world simply for being here on 'their land' anyway and naive hope in non existant good will gained from not doing this is pure fantasy nonsense at this point. At this time the world is filled with starving BILLIONS and the pressure of those who want will only increase. If we are going to actually persevere we need to be strong enough to survive, in this world for the LONG RUN. The security gained from a cohesive homogenius population on a small but now defendable territory would give us the strength to do that which no one intelligent or wise would dare do now; let down our guard enough to make the real sacrifices that would be necessary to make a real peace. This is not the paradox it may seem to some. A long term survival will require TWO things to exist at the same time. The strength to defend, OURSELVES and the capacity therefor to succesfully negotiate a viable long and hopefully permanent PEACE from a position of relative security. The fearful make for trembling and suspicious peace! One made in confidence that one is not likely to be lightly assaulted will be one of far more confidence. Yes PEACE. AS though the options open are merely two opposite IMPOSSIBLE absurdities. Endless war or capitulation! There should be no doubt however to create peace we must have effectively achieved our minimal requirements for this long term survival. WE must be satisfied with what we have and forever after change our policies to that end. As in all struggles for survival; and no other land or people in the world live in such a threatened and isolated part of the world as we do, desire for peace can never substitute for the hard steps that are sometimes necessary to make these hopes more than pious dreams. What this means is coming clean and finishing with hidden agendas. Both left and right know this about the situation and so the only political options are two opposite impossible ones; which inevitably becomes the corruption and paralysis to politics in action. SO the only solution is the cutting of the Gordian knot. This will politically reward left and right. The patriots get Greater Israel; removing the whole complex of problems of the settler, apartheid situation while making the nation a viable contigous land of sufficiant size to MAYBE survive a future war. The left would win in the long run as there would no longer be any other possible political move than sincere and bold moves towards not just a cease fire but a step by step process of building sincere and diplomatic situation. The left would also find their position vs corruption and the exploitation of the many by the greedy few would cease as all would be lanf owners and more reliant on each other. The war profiteers and ultra wealthy would find it harder to motivate thier obscene wealth. THis would maybe put us in a position half way between the old Kibbutz spirit of socialism and the overdone capitalist greed that have flourished in the never ending impasse of the reality of Israeli politics these last decades. Everyone on both left/right divide must recognise the truth of what I say. I do not HATE palestinian people. I hate more those Jews who are arrogant and brutal against them and enjoy it. But these people are individuals and no more THE Jew, than the suicide bomber is THE Arab. Both left and right are wrong. Morally the right are often more immoral for their cynicism and devious corruption; which while tactically effective corrupt the soul and will to act decisivly even in the ares when they know they are right. The right are going to have to give up their hatred and ATONE for it. THis is right and true and part of our deepest traditions and insights. THey must conquer fear and greed. The left are simply absurd, like children at a student rally; they are passionate and often moral and good hearted but they are like city children dropped into a jungle; who want to play mowgli and dnace with a tiger. The problem is no ADULT can really believe this absurdity that the tiny uncontigous half nation can by giving up more land stop a hatred by BILLIONS against us just for the very fact of our existance! This is taking LSD, holding hands, closing your eyes and wishing the pentagon would just float away naivete. The hard part will be the middle term; as we have to withstand the waves of condemnation that would at first seem overwhelming. But not only will it pass; if we truelly do change from a hidden to an open agenda but it will in the end disappear as essentially the situation will be as before; simply with us being twice our present size. We will however be no longer desiring more and our behavour will prove this. Thus in the long run we will get the best of both left and right rather than this slow bleeding to death of the worst of the left and right. We will hopefully be the last to do this but it is necessary for us; the people wandering for 2,000 years. If not emigrate.

Let me get this straight "The prospect of the United States recognising an independent Palestine without the agreement of Israel seems very remote." but Israel can defy US wishes at any time. It seems pretty clear who wears the trousers in the US/Isreal relationship.

Israel unilaterally declared itself a state back in 1948. The partition resolution in the UN General Assembly was only a non-binding resolution and had no teeth. It is past time for the Palestinians to declare their state on ALL the land occupied in 1967.

Since they have not had a real interest in fair negotiations since day 1 - do it unilaterally: finish the border fence; make sure there are no entrances to Israel; ban all work permits and instead give them to the African refugees who truly want peace and only a better life away from Muslims that only want to kill them; stop assistance to the pali infrastructure. Given the trillions donated by the euros and the USA, they can use the money to build their roads, their schools and their own medical facilities (if the Swiss will let them have their money back); they have ports of entry so let them use them; hold a referendum to exchange the Arab triangle of the Galilee for the settlements dunam for dunam so no one can yell someone got less - let's be real the Galilee Arabs have been fighting for pali rule for years although they are no in the "be careful what you wished for" part; and most of all, let the palis know that since they are now a sovereign entity, ANY acts of terrorism regardless of which pali group conducts it is an act of war and will quickly be responded to accordingly. Here come the thumbs down! -)

Israel can annex what it wants , give no passage through gaza and still remain as occupying force on jordan river and any security areas until there is a comprehensive peace. There is already a defacto state in gaza. what is left of the west bank will eventually reunite or associate with jordan. Who will make them leave?

It is no longer the case that Israel needs the West Bank for security reasons so it should give up most of it not including E. Jerusalem just as it gave up Gaza. Israeli settlers in the West Bank can decide it they want to stay or get out. If the the West Bank leaders expel them, then Israel can expel Palestinians from East Jerusalem. If Palestinians attack Israeli citizens in the West Bank there will be serious abd broad based repurcussions. In the end the settlers will leave on their own. The best thing that can happen to israel is for the Palestinians to take over and decide how they want to treat the settlers. At that point talk of peace becomes irrelevant. Obama can get back to worrying about more important things for Americans. Israel is an expensive diverson for the US through no fault of Israel.

Yesterday the Obama administration announced that it's embassy will remain in Tel Aviv which the US recognises as the capital of Israel. At the same time, the administration announced that they would be opening their embassy in Palestine in East Jerusalem which the US and EU recognise as the capital of Palestine. Israel opposes this move and is trying to stop it but has no support in the international community.

where is goldstone the jerk? where are all of the international press retractions? HUH???? WHERE????? Just like jenin, once again, the worlds press are proven to be fools by hamas...hamas uses them and they just report lies without any facts.... Israel always said it was 700-800 dead terrorists and some 300 killed as collateral damage from being human shields. Where are the apologies and retractions ?????????????

A Muslim President can do no less than deliver Jerusalem to Islam. At least he is true to his Islamic religion, which is more than can be said of left-wing Jews.

there is no possible deal with any proposition put forward ! think of all those unwra people out of work if abbas goes to the un !

"Raising the stakes in the deadlock over stalled peace talks" have had affected the peace process in 40 years despite Israel have had attended several demands for the neighbors. With regards all have been done, what the neighbors have done except to obstructing the path to a peace treaty?

Israel has total control over its neighbors and the US has reduced the Palestinians to defenseless beggars. You ask Israel to give up power, land, aquifer and their welfare check. You can ask nothing from the Palestinians as they have nothing. ---------------It's not a negotiation--------------------------US should pay and pay and pay for what they have done

Israel needs to give up the settlements with a small land exchange of decent land to the Palestinians for that which Israel keeps. Israel furthermore needs to provide some sort of compensation to refugees and acknowledge the country's role in creating them in the first place. Jerusalem must be an international city that is open to all. Palestinians must give up the right of return to Israel proper, accept that Jerusalem belongs to everyone and at the end of the day they need to be the loudest Arab voice advocating normalized relations with Israel. That and they need to stop spreading false info (what massacre at Jenin?) in their ongoing efforts to see Israel replaced by Palestine. If there is to be no Greater Israel (makes sense), there should be no Historic Palestine, for each precludes the others ability to survive.

There is a real danger for the pals here in that israel may just annex all of area C and B and leave A to the PA. Then we have a bunch of gaza style prisons in the WB. Then when the prisoners get mad at this and try to fight back, israel uses the same techniques as with gaza using the same excuse.

and no Israeli income tax money transfer of $55mm/m ; that will be the end of any Palestinian State. Absorbe all the other Palestinians refuges into the WB from Jordan and Lebanon? Can't do it economically - demographic immigrant explosion - disaster. Jews look after their co-religionists, not Muslims. Abbas is whistling by the cemetary.

the palestinians have for too long been deceived by a sly israel. the palestinians should get their own state straight away. negotiating with israel will not bring them any fruits. further waiting will not be their advantage.

Sophism is all one can get from the Palestinians: they use the housing issue (built on Israel land and capital, by the way) to deflect attention from its incapacity to reach true peace. They had 10 months to make a decision, none was made; they have the opportunity to have a state, but none is built; they consciously cling to impossible conditions knowing they will never be met because they acknowledge their lack of ability to manage a statehood (the relationship between Fatah and Hamas is the very proof of it). Mr. Erikat and its mates lack political will yet try to conceal, period.

are not the 3 weeks over yet? are not you going to give the "peace" process another (1000000) chance? why do not declare that state and its borders for the world to recoginze it first, for starters, duh? Erikat, although, you, Fayyad, Ahmad Qurei, Abu Mazen, had, over the yeas, made such rehotric remarks, the Zionists never waivered on their way, while, you , look like complete morons...try to act like a man, not just talking like one, for change, Erikat? will you?

with the only nice guys left. The farther east you go the more radical the Moslems are. If Natan gets his way and expel the Palestinians, he will have to deal with a none ending war. Jihadist will be coming from all over the Islamic world to fight Israel. Egypt will not be able to explain Israel's behavior to its citizens. Some regimes that the west has spent years and treasure to shore up will be lost to popular anger. In short the US cannot fight all your battles, and definitely not this one. The American people are watching and they know what got them into Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time that Israel use some prudence and it will take it a long way. Many people in the Middle east are waiting for a chance to say "Welcome to the Area" Israel. But they cannot say it out loud till the issue with the Palestinians is resolved. If the Palestinians are expelled, all moderate voices will vanish.

Saeb Erekat can demand what he likes . So did Arafat . The existing Palestinian leaders are all hasbeens. It's time for the younger leaders to take control it's ther destiny. Let the settlers build negociate who knows the Palestinians might land up inheritting thousands of settlers who will have to live under their control.

Let the Palestinians go ahead. They will have to absorb all the refugees and any war started by that state eg Palestine can legitimately be met by armed force.

Must the US and EU be exposed to a third incident where Israel declares yet more housing units to be built on Palestinian land making a viable state an impossibility? Or will they go on with this diplomatic language which Israel only scorns and laughs in the face of the leaders from the international community. There is no other option but for the palestinians to declare their state within the borders that the world recognises as being those of Palestine and a shard capital in Jerusalem. If this conflict is left to fester and this zionist intransigence allowed to go on unabated, then we will have a global problem on our hands and it will be Israel's doing.

Its clear that the pals don’t care about Israel's Security all they want is their vision of what their state should look like... So the only Answer is for Israel to Adhere to resolution 242 as much as possible... dismantle the outposts.... keep the settlements... (Basically pull back to our side of the fence)... that way they pals can get the outskirts of Jerusalem (southern Ramallah) and the pals get their state... This is the only real way to advance peace... For peace can only be negotiated by two countries...

As if would be a clear violation of resoution 242!!!

Israel has become more aggressive in eroding Palestine and denying the Palestinians their legally entitled human rights. Meaningless rhetoric spouts from the mouths of Netanyahu and Lieberman. It is time for aggressive action on the part of Palestine, the Quartet and the Arab nations. Israel's has abused its original United Nations land grant and continues to abuse International Law. Unilateral declaration of statehood with UN Security Council is now appropriate.

if they dont want to declare Israel as a state because they did so in 1993... why would they need to re-declare a state today?

If Netanyahoo Gov. does not want or UNABLE to Negociate Peace Settlement due to Xtreme Pressures from within, then the inevitable path of Unilateral Declaration of Independence, is unfortunately the ONLY logical step to be taken, after such a long, L O N G occupation.

The reason the 1988 declaration got nowhere was that it was for a state in line with the 1947 UN partition plan. It ignored Israel's own declaration and its acceptance by the UN and tried to roll history back to before the 1948 War. That kind of thing will go nowhere.

First, one should look at the THREAT of a unilateral declaration of an independent Palestinian state. This certainly advances the peace talks, because while Netanyahu seems paralyzed, the US and the Europeans may not be and they will put pressure on Israel to move. They know that a declaration of independence will complicate the international situation. Note that in order to be credible, the Palestinians must be actually willing to do the declaration. (Obama especially is inclined towards payback to Netanyahu for causing trouble before the US elections.) Second, such a declaration of Palestine independence will only take place if the peace process is stuck. In this case, a declaration is simply better than doing nothing. At least it will lead to shaking up the diplomatic situation, get the Palestinians into the UN (without a US veto), and increase pressure for a settlement. Recall that Sadat's goal in the 1973 war was exactly such a shake-up, and he ended up getting his land back.

Then the hard part begins: Running the state, governing, etc... Oh yeah, you will have to work out the borders with Israel and Jordan too.

As we go now with israelis tired of inner fighting about clericalism, fascism, racism, oportunism, corruption, etc, people are tired and are not ready anymore to fight for general human values. Thus when it comes to the jewish-arab conflict no acceptable solution is in vieu. The only possibility left is a one state for both people with a secular constitution based of perfect equality between all citizens.

A couple of things cool-headed people need to consider: 1. The UN has already granted international legitimacy to a Palestinian state via its resolution on partition from 1947. Therefore, a Palestinan state can, theoretically, be declared and established at any time. That it has not done so for over 60 years is a result of expulsions, flight, war, politics, internal Arab machinations and occupation. 2. The Israelis are either, as the article states, more interested in land grabbing than peace (and much justification for this can be found) or are simply totally oblivious cocncerning the Palestinian view of the situation. Settlement building to them is (roughly) equivalent to the Israeli view of Palestinian violence. If the latter must refrain from violence, then the Palestinians feel the Israelis must obstain from further building in contested territory. To them, it is an act of violence aginst their people. The Israeli security thesis is weak. It is controversial among the Israeli security elite, and if Israel truly looked to the settlements as a security bulwark, they would have established mostly military outposts there, and not civilian settlements populated in large measure by middle-class, secular commuters who will flee at the earliest signs of danger (remember the days leading up to the 1991 Gulf War)?

If the Palestinians do this, what will they get? A state roughly on the 1967 borders (they won't get all the settlements, though they might get some), a part of East Jerusalem as a capital, no right of return to Israel but a right of return to the new Palestine.... ...hmmm....isn't that exactly what Israel has offered them about 5 times now? It seems like Abbas and Co. are settling for a slightly worse deal than what was offered at Camp David and Taba...but doing it because THEY get to dictate the terms. Let them go for it, once again the Palestinian leadership putting macho posturing before the needs of their people. The same result for Israel, but without the lengthy, costly negotiations.

The israeli/Palestinian conflict will only be solved by imposing a peace treaty followed by disengagement on the U.S. side. It does not make sense for America to have presence in many Arab countries and be friend to Israel at the same time. There is something wrong there and the current administration is getting to recognize it. It is never too late to disengage from full unquestionable support to Israel. Time has come for a real change for the sake of Free America.

Raising the stakes in the deadlock over stalled peace talks, Saeb Erekat said it was clear from the latest announcement of building plans in East Jerusalem and Ariel that Israel wants settlements, not peace.

Cowley said "It could very well be that somebody in Israel has made this known in order to embarrass the prime minister and to undermine the process". This lame excuse was used too many times already under similar situations. Sounds like the boy who cried wolf too many times.

The last thing Obama wants is the palestinians to go direct to the UN then he finds himself in a situation where he will pay the price. Does he veto the proposed resolution angering his new buddies in the islamic world especially the Saudis who contributed generously to his election fund which most Congressmen & US jewish voters would have him do or does he allow the UN to go ahead and loose his legacy as the president that created an arab state and be left looking like an idiot in the eyes of the world while the palestinians just said don't worry Mr Obama we are not going to involve you so step aside please while we go to the UN to solve our problem. If Abbas tries going to the UN it will all be over for palestinians. The UN can't create a viable state for that they need Israel's cooperation which it wont give if the palestinians are going direct to the UN. Israel will probably retaliate by going out of its way to make life hard for this state - no territorial corridor linking the state making air travel the only method of transport between the 2 sides of the state and in a situation like that no business is ever going to invest in this state because business likes good transport links & stability. The UN cant impose solutions on things like the water ... Israel currently controls the water supplies and is not going to share valuable water with an enemy out of the goodness of its heart. The palestinians will later discover that whilst they rushed and got their state through the UN rather than taking their time and negotiating they now have a state thats not viable and without doing a few deals with Israel it will never be viable but unfortunatly for them the new reality is any palestinian president doing deals with Israel will be considered a traitor and the remains of Israels peace camp will be smashed so doing deals will be impossible for either side. The palestinians should take advantage of the fact for the first time the US president is on their side and hates Israel just as much as they do and so stop acting like children and go hold unconditional talks do that Obama will be in a position to do things for them but create a deadlock because of pre conditions or rushing to the UN and they loose that. The palestinians are headed down a suicidal path and if they go to far there will be no return and the situation will go from bad - worse.

You are not serious. Palestinians must make compromise if they want a state. A state like Palestine has never existed and may not even exist unless they make compromise on certain issues. Palestinians are responsible for costing USA democrats the mid term election, and if the Democrats do not support Israel then they are out of office come nest election 2012.

They will participate in the next Olympics. The event called Murdering Pregnant Women will will them the Gold Medal. And we want to award this terror entity with a State ??

It's about time! With Israel's appalling behavior and disgusting government I fully support the immediate formation of the Palestinian State. Go for it and I wish you well. BTW - I am a Zionist.

1) Accept, in principle and through a simple declarative act, Israel's RIGHT to be, to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that any peace treaty that will result from negotiations with Israel will be considered the end of the conflict and the end of all demands of it. 2) Adhere to that which they agreed with Israel and the US: direct negotiations without preconditions that will deal with all the "core issues", including "settlements" of course. Demanding now, after two sessions into the negotiations, to change the terms of reference and expecting pre-conditions to be applied is contrary to good faith approach to peace-making. Can Ereqat and his senders show the world that they can, finally, handle matters peacefully and in good faith...??

Don't wait for Washington's approval - you'll be waiting forever. Just do it now - it's the perfect timing; and with Israel showing it's true intentions to the world you have no other options left.

For Peace except threaten, bully, and terrorize. They could have had everything in 1967, yet chose war. They will now get nothing. Besides, Hamas will not honor anything that is ever agreed. Lets hope this entity is stillborn. A fake farce.

well except maybe Israel and Micro no sia. Had to come to this. This will put Israel,s refusal to make peace --right out in the open for all to see--read about for the next twenty years. Survive that Israel and you will have earned whatever you get to keep. Don,t get your hopes up though--your leaders will destroy Israel.

dismantle the PA, accept a one state solution and return all control to israel. Then you would see massive explusions of arabs out of fear of israelis being out numbered by demographics. The ugly side of israeli politics would have to show it's face in sunlight.

All those years while Jordan ruled the WB nobody made a peep about Palestine Now, you want it - well not enough to make concessions but certainly enough to make threats and a fuss. What has changed?

Ya hmar , Arab Palestine already exists, Israel is jewish Palestine. Jordan is Palestine

Sadly it now seems this is the ONLY way to go thanks to Israel's me me me approach to sharing the land.