Israel Matzav

'All hell has broken out' (with video)

As 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen winged his way to New York on Monday, he told reporters on his private jet (for which you and every other taxpayer in Israel, the US and Europe are paying) that 'all hell has broken out.'

Speaking to journalists on his flight to New York, Abbas said that the Palestinian leadership had seriously discussed all proposals put forward by the Middle East Quartet and its special envoy Tony Blair, a correspondent reported.

The proposals, however, did not support the goal of a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas said.

The president said he had been told by the United States and European governments that "matters will be bad" after a UN move which reflects his frustration with a moribund peace process.

He is scheduled to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavarov on Monday to discuss international developments and proposals on the bid, a reporter said.

Abbas said there had been "huge pressure" on the Palestinian Authority not to continue with the UN bid for statehood, adding that third party mediators had not made any useful suggestions.

"We told them that any proposals which do not include a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and an end to settlement expansion are unacceptable."

"We decided to take this step and all hell has broken out against us," he told reporters.

One person who will apparently not meet with Abu Mazen while he is in New York is US President Barack Hussein Obama.

Abbas said Sunday that he had not scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, but is open to the possibility.

“Neither I, nor Obama asked for a meeting, so I don’t believe we will meet. However, if we meet, I will remind him that he promised last year that the state of Palestine would be a full member of the UN this year, and I came here on the grounds of the promise I heard."

He said the Palestinians' only decision so far was to request full membership through the Security Council.

"From now until I give the speech, we have only one choice: going to the Security Council. Afterward, we will sit and decide."

Politico reports that while Abu Mazen has committed to going to the UN Security Council, he is not yet committed to going to the UN General Assembly, where the 'Palestinians' claim to have 126 countries who support their 'statehood' bid (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

If they fail to gain recognition from the 15-member Security Council, some Palestinians officials have said they then plan to turn to the full U.N. General Assembly to upgrade their status from an “entity” to a “non-member state.” The Palestinians say that they have support from at least 126 members of the 193 members of the General Assembly, reports Reuters.

However, Abbas himself has not yet pledged to go quite that far. “From now until I give the speech, we have only one choice: going to the Security Council. Afterwards, we will sit and decide,” he said.

Abu Mazen also claims that his 'people' will not resort to violence.

Abbas also vowed that the Palestinians would not again resort to violence, as some did after the failure of the Camp David Summit in 2000.

“We will never return to an intifada [uprising]. We will never return to violence,” Abbas said. “All our people will do is demonstrate peacefully inside the [Palestinian] cities.”

I don't know a single Israeli who believes that, although we are all hoping and praying that the IDF will be able to contain the 'demonstrations' within the 'Palestinians' cities.

Here's a report that includes video of Abu Mazen's arrival in New York. Let's go to the videotape.



See below regarding video.

JPost reports that the quartet is frantically trying to help President Obama to avoid a veto.

A last-ditch international push began in New York on Sunday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations as members of the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators met in New York.

Officials met two days after Abbas said he would demand full membership of the world body for a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Asked before the meeting if either could report any progress, Clinton replied, "We are meeting to talk about the way forward." Asked if that meant no progress, she said, "I didn't say that."

...

The United States says it will veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for full UN membership, but former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves an an envoy for the Quartet, said on Sunday a showdown could still be averted.

Blair told reporters, "The Palestinians are here at the UN now, so the question is ... can people find a way that enables the Palestinians to take a significant step forward to statehood at the same time as not ending up in a situation where the UN replaces negotiations?"

On Sunday, Israel's Channel 10 reported that a 'Palestinian' source complained that Blair was behaving 'like an Israeli diplomat' (link in Hebrew).

Who's fault is it? I'll get to that later today.

UPDATE 3:02 PM BOSTON TIME

LiveLeak took down the video. No great loss - the rest of the post is more important.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Catherine Ashton, Hillary Clinton, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Tony Blair, Unilateral declaration of independence (UDI)

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:36 PM