Palestinian 'state' not real until peace with Israel

USATODAY

Palestinians on Friday celebrated their new status as a symbolic state following a United Nations but they won't have a real state until they agree with Israel on thorny issues the two have tangled over for decades, analysts say.

The vote is historic because it allows Palestinians to use the word "state" in their title at the U.N., , says Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But, she said, it does not solve issues like the status of Jerusalem, the details of borders and security, mutual recognition and refugee claims.

"I don't think it moves the process any closer to negotiations," Ottaway said.

The U.N. General Assembly voted 138-9 with 41 abstentions to grant Palestine non-member state status, a move that Israel and the USA warned would make peace more difficult.

Palestinians in the West Bank erupted in cheers, hugging each other and honking car horns. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, hundreds crowding into the main square waved Palestinian flags and chanted "God is great."

"It's a great feeling to have a state, even if in name only," said civil servant Mohammed Srour, 28, standing in a flag-waving a crowd of more than 2,000 packed into a square in the West Bank city of Ramallah late Thursday.

The vote held on the 65th anniversary of the birth of modern Israel when the UN voted to partition the region into one Jewish state and one Arab state. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told General Assembly delegates before the vote that it would "breathe new life into the negotiation process."

Abbas said he "did not come here to de-legitimize a state established years ago, that is Israel." Then lashed out at Israel, blaming it for a lack of peace in the region and alleging it conducted "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza in its air campaign against rocket fire aimed it Israeli cities and towns.

Abbas' remarks and the final vote were met with loud applause in the General Assembly. The vote effectively recognizes Palestine as a state but it will not be a UN member. Membership is granted by the Security Council, where the USA, which opposed the move but failed to stop it, has veto power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Abbas speech "defamatory and venomous," saying it was "full of mendacious propaganda" against Israel and showed that the Palestinians are not really interested in having a peaceful state alongside Israel.

"No Palestinian state will exist without a declaration of an end to hostilities, and no Palestinian state will exist without real security arrangements that will protect the State of Israel and its citizens. None of these things are remotely mentioned in the Palestinian petition to the U.N," Netanyahu said.

Israel just completed a military operation in Gaza against Hamas, the Palestinian faction and U.S.-designated terror group that fired hundreds of rockets at Israel earlier this month until Israel launched air strikes to stop them. The two sides called a cease-fire last week.

"There is only one way peace can be achieved," he continued. "Through direct negotiation between the sides without preconditions," he said.

Though the vote does not give the Palestinian Authority UN membership it may allow it to file suits against Israel in the International Criminal Court, and allow Israel to do the same against the Palestinian Authority.

However, Abbas said Palestinians will accept nothing less than an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital on all territories occupied by Israel in a 1967 war, and a settlement to the issue of millions of Palestinian descendants who have refugee status. Israel's position is Jerusalem will always remain its undivided capital and that refugees cannot return to Israel.

The United States, which voted against the resolution, immediately criticized the vote. The USA and Israel have said that the vote will make the Palestinians less likely to compromise on difficult choices and make it harder for the two sides to create a lasting peace.

"Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path peace," U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive."

Vuk Jeremić, president of the General Assembly acknowledged the historical nature of the vote and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders "to work for peace, negotiate in good faith and succeed." Until Thursday, the Palestinian Authority has the status of U.N. observer.

Ahead of the vote, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch filed an amendment to a defense bill that would eliminate funding for the United Nations if the General Assembly changes Palestine's status.

"Increasing the Palestinians' role in the United Nations is absolutely the wrong approach, especially in light of recent military developments in the Middle East," he said in a statement. "Israel is one of America's closest allies, and any movement to strengthen one of its fiercest enemies must not be tolerated."

The Palestinian effort is a rejection of US-mediated peace talks, says Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Palestine Center, a pro-Palestinian think-tank in Washington. They're meant to create leverage for Palestinians to impose costs on the Israelis for the occupation, Munayyer says.

"This is an alternative strategy to seek membership in other international forums after Obama failed to get Israel to agree to a settlement freeze" in 2010, Munayyer said.

The Palestinians have different strategies for making the occupation costly for Israel, Munayyer said. Hamas, the U.S. designated terror group that rules the Palestinian territory of Gaza, believes only force will achieve Israeli concessions, while Abbas' Fatah party and Palestinian Liberation Organization believe in using international courts and organizations.

"Unless Israel has costs related to the occupation, it's not going to change," he says.

The U.N. vote should be "a springboard" to a process that results in better relations between Ramallah and Washington, says Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, which advocates for a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Better Palestinian-US relations would be the first step to getting back to negotiations with Israel, Ibish says.

Ibish said he believes many European countries that Israel and the USA thought would abstain or oppose the measure decided to vote in favor or abstain because Palestinian leaders signaled "they can be restrained in using those options."

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Contributing: The Associated Press