Netanyahu Threatens to Retaliate if Palestinians Declare Statehood

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to retaliate if Palestinians declare a unilateral state, saying such a move would unravel existing agreements with the Israelis.

Netanyahu’s stern comments come the same day that a senior Palestinian official told Fox News they are considering a U.N. resolution to declare a Palestinian state. Palestinian officials had said Sunday they were preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they were losing faith in the peace talks.

But Netanyahu, speaking at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, said there is “no substitute” for negotiations.

“Any unilateral action would only unravel the framework of agreements between us and can only lead to one-sided steps on the part of Israel,” he said. He did not elaborate further.

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Abbas: No Mideast Peace Without Jerusalem as Palestinian Capital

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday called Jerusalem “the key for peace” and said justice and peace would not come to the Middle East without “an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Addressing an audience at the opening of an event celebrating Jerusalem’s role in Arab culture, Abbas reiterated calls for Israel to accept a two-state solution, vowing not to resume negotiations with Israel without an explicit Israeli recognition of previously signed agreements.

Abbas said that “any new Israeli government should reaffirm anew its commitment for peace by clearly accepting the two-state solution, the road map peace plan and all commitments reached in previously signed agreements.”

He also stressed that “without (Israel) halting all settlement activities, in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories, there will not be serious and productive negotiations.”

Abbas stressed that the Palestinians want to reach “an effective truce” with Israel that would end bloodshed and hardships.

He called on Israel to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories, describing this policy as one of “ethnic cleansing.”

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Pope To Visit Israel – Hopes To Build Catholic-Jewish Ties

A papal trip to the Holy Land would be a decisive step in overcoming the problems that still dog Catholic-Jewish relations, a senior Vatican official said.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Jews, made his remarks in an interview Wednesday in the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican has said that a papal trip to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories may still take place in 2009 despite the current violence in Gaza.

Kasper said progress had been made in Jewish-Catholic relations over the past year but “there is no lack of problems.” He underscored two issues in particular: the reintroduction of a “prayer for the Jews” into the Good Friday liturgy and the continuing controversy over the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.

“I’m convinced then that the pope’s hoped-for trip to the Holy Land would be decisive to overcome prejudice and incomprehension that mark our relations with Judaism,” he said.

via ‘Papal visit to Israel could help Catholic-Jewish ties’ | Jewish News | Jerusalem Post.

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