All but resigned to the inevitability of a Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations later this month, Jewish groups are hoping that its effects can be blunted through aggressive diplomacy and the threat of action by the U.S. Congress.
Israel stands at a crossroads once again, threatened from within by the lack of solidarity and crisis of trust between the Israeli government and the middle class. Israel is also threatened from without by the ‘’Palestinian September’’ as the Palestinians take their case for an independent State to the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Legislation that would cut off U.S. funds to countries that support granting the Palestinians a state unilaterally was introduced in the House of Representatives.\n
Upgrading the Palestinians\’ U.N. status would be a \”strategic mistake by the world\”, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday, cautioning that Israel had prepared a slew of punitive and diplomatic responses.
The creation of a universally-recognized Palestinian state would be just a first step towards wiping out Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday.
The Palestinian Authority will ask the United Nations to recognize Palestine as an independent state on the first day of the body\’s new session.
Israeli ambassador Michael Oren told Jewish Democrats that Israel needs “all hands on deck” ahead of a Palestinian push for statehood.
Recent events have cast a dark pall over Israel. The total collapse of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has led the latter to pursue the course of unilateral action, as reflected in the drive for United Nations affirmation of Palestinian statehood in September. Meanwhile, a wave of parliamentary activity, instigated by Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu Party, threatens to undermine key foundations of Israel’s democratic tradition by seeking to stifle dissent and free expression.
Canada will not support the Palestinian effort at the United Nations to win statehood.
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