The PLO leadership on Monday night announced that it is in the process of putting together a plan for the Palestinian Authority to join international organizations under UN direction, as well as sign international conventions, Israel Radio reports.
The plan is being devised by the PLO political committee, on instructions from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
When the current peace negotiations began, some seven months ago, the Palestinians committed to delay approaching international organizations for recognition, in return for the release of 104 terrorists from Israeli jails.
That one worked out nicely.
The PLO announcement Monday night blamed Israel’s government for the difficulties in the political process.
Jewish Home Chairman and Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett told Israel Radio there’s no difference between Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat. Bennett said the PA chairman, like Arafat, keeps talking about a million shahids-martyrs marching on Jerusalem and refusing to ever give up the “right of return,” not just for Arab refugees who actually left their homes in Israel in 1948-9, but all of their descendants.
Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio that it appears the Palestininas have been objecting to the U.S. attempts to galvanize a statement of principles reflecting the progress that’s been reached on some core issues. Hanegbi believes has been gravitating to an anti-peace position from which he is refusing to depart, over Jerusalem, the right of return and recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
Senior Labor MK Eitan Cabel told Israel Radio he thinks neither side has been negotiating in good faith, and they each spend their time looking for ways to pin the failure of the talks on the other.
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki met with Secretary of State John Kerry it the office of the American ambassador to Paris, and told the secretary that the Palestinians oppose recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and insist that East Jerusalem becomes the future Palestinian capital.
Commenting on Kerry’s new shuttle meetings with Arab foreign ministers who are members of an Arab League committee, to solicit their support for the peace process, al-Maliki said Arab diplomats support the Palestinian position on all major issues.