A draft resolution presented by Jordan on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday at a session of the United Nations Security Council is now being considered by all 15 members of the world body – and the State of Israel.
The resolution currently calls for the total withdrawal of Israeli military forces from all territories conquered in the 1967 Six Day War by 2017. It also calls for the return of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to final status talks for a so-called “two-state solution.”
If approved in its present form, at the very least the agreement would leave half a million Jews completely without protection in the face of deadly, daily attacks by PA Arab terrorists.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also pointed out Wednesday the proposal would also leave the Palestinian Authority population vulnerable as well.
Speaking a a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony with employees at the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, or “Abu Mazen” – the terrorist name by which Abbas is known among other Arabs – “does not understand that they will result in a Hamas takeover in Judea and Samaria, just as previously occurred in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.
“We will not allow this to happen. We will never agree to unilateral diktat. We will always safeguard our security. This is our lesson both from the days of the Maccabees and in our day,” he said.
In the PA capital of Ramallah, meanwhile, Abbas told officials at the Muqata headquarters, “We submitted a draft… aiming to have a deadline to end the Israeli occupation for the lands of the State of Palestine. We discussed with our brothers and friends during all the steps of arranging that draft… [which] assures the two-state solution that should be on the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as a capital for two states with east Jerusalem as a capital for the State of Palestine,” he said.
“We welcome an international conference for negotiations but the talks should not last more than a year, with the end of the Israeli occupation in the State of Palestine before the end of 2017,” he said.
Abbas added the resolution also calls for “an agreement for the Palestinian refugees according to the Arab peace initiative and UN Resolution 194.” None of that was reported anywhere in U.S. media, and it is not clear whether or not, in fact, it is even true. Abbas also claimed the draft resolution calls for a halt to all “settlement activities” and for security preparations allowing for the presence of an international party.
Nine votes are needed to pass the resolution, and any of the five permanent members of the Council can veto it. Britain, Germany and France are also drafting their own versions of a counter proposal.