Abbas more interested in legacy and personal glory than in peace with Israel, says WJC head
The World Jewish Congress has warned the United Nations that accepting the Palestinian petition for endorsement of unilaterally declared statehood, which was presented by Mahmoud Abbas to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, would deal a fatal blow to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and gravely undermine the very principles on which the UN was founded. “As many world leaders have told us over the past few weeks, negotiations with Israel are the only viable way for the Palestinians to reach statehood. The fact that he is now turning to the UN shows that Mr. Abbas is more interested in creating a legacy and in personal glory than he is in reaching peace with Israel,” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder declared.
Lauder welcomed the increasing number of UN members calling for an immediate return to negotiations as the only path to peace and praised the clear rejection of the Palestinian gambit by countries such as the United States, Germany and Colombia. “The world should take a principled stand on this matter and not allow the Palestinians to bypass the negotiating table. All previous UN resolutions and existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinians have mandated that contentious issues should be resolved through negotiations between the parties involved. Therefore, the Palestinian application to the UN is illegal and flies in the face of the Charter of the United Nations,” the WJC president pointed out.
WJC Secretary-General Dan Diker added: “There should a Jewish state for the Jewish people and a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, living side by side in mutual recognition, peace and security. Such an outcome cannot be achieved through unilateral actions. Since 2009 the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, believing they could use the international community to extract concessions from Israel.
“Over the past weeks and months, the WJC leadership has met with dozens of heads of state and government, foreign ministers and UN ambassadors, in particular from European countries, in a concerted effort to side-line the Palestinian efforts to impose their statehood plan on the United Nations. We urge the members of the Security Council not to sound the death knell of the peace process by prematurely endorsing Palestinian statehood,” Diker said.
