UN bid top priority for PA

Mohammed Ishtayeh, senior Palestinian negotiator and member of the Fatah central committee, told Arabstoday that the PA rejected an Israeli offer made about a month ago guaranteeing the release of 50 Palestinian detainees, in five instalments within a year, ten detainees per instalment, in exchange for abandoning Palestinian leadership plans to head to the UN for “observer” membership. Ishtayeh said the Israeli offer also included “allowing the entrance of two million bullets, three thousand riffles presented to the PA from Egypt and Russia which are currently in Jordan, a number of Russian tanks and releasing the bodies of 100 Palestinian martyrs.” Ishtayeh said “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a direct meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on the basis that it would be followed by launching direct negotiations between the two sides, what the PA refused”. Ishtayeh reaffirmed the PA stance of “refraining from any negotiations with the Israeli side before the latter freezes all settlement building activities, recognises a Palestinian state on 1967 boundaries, the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and eastern Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.” The Israeli Maariv daily published Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the PA of his willingness to double the number of veteran prisoners released by Israel to 50 prisoners in return for cancelling Palestinian leadership plans to take their case to the UN. Maariv explained that Netanhyahu set three conditions for the release of the 50 veteran prisoners, 25 of whom Netanyahu offered to immediately release, while the Israeli conditions included abandoning plans to head to the UN, holding a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and launching negotiations following this meeting. The newspaper also reported that the Palestinian side rejected this new Israeli offer. This new Israeli offer, Maariv said, comes within the frame of talks between Netanyahu’s envoy Isaac Molkho and Saeb Erekat, but Erekat refused to comment, considering it merely media hype. On his side, Israeli permanent representative to the UN Ron Prosor said that “the Palestinians' bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations would find majority support there but would not bring them closer to statehood. Particularly at a time when a Palestinian document called for preparation for a number of Israeli and American sanctions if these efforts proceed.” The Israeli UN representative considered Palestinians to be attempting to try to recapture international attention that has shifted to crises in Iran, Egypt and Syria and viewed that “the path to peace really is through the negotiating table with Israel.” He added “in essence, Abu Mazen (Abbas) today has zero control in Gaza by attempting to get a UN declaration as a recognized state, is trying to present himself as a strong man in the Gaza Strip after it went out of his grip.”