|
Trending Topics
|
Palestinian Gambit for Statehood Puts Israel Against Wall
(JTA) Leslie Susser - With talks at a stalemate, the Palestinians are playing a new card: an end game to statehood through an appeal to the international community. If Israel remains in control of large swaths of the West Bank after a Palestinian state is declared and recognized, even if it's just in the General Assembly, it would provide additional fodder for the campaign to delegitimize Israel. "The Palestinians will declare a state. Virtually the whole world will recognize it. And we will be left without security arrangements," Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer said Monday. Behind the scenes, Israeli diplomats have been warning their colleagues in Washington and Europe that if the Palestinians act on the UN strategy, the current peace process, and the Oslo process on which it is based, would be over.