Livni: UN declaration won't create Palestinian state

In 'Newsweek' interview, opposition leader says that the Palestinians' UN bid will create neither a state nor peace, only a declaration.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Livni 311 reuters (photo credit: reuters)
Livni 311 reuters
(photo credit: reuters)
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said that the United Nations "is not going to establish a [Palestinian] state. It's going to make a declaration," in a brief interview with Newsweek published Monday.
A declaration of statehood in the UN, she said, would not help achieve peace and will not establish a state. "I believe that the goal is to achieve peace and to end the conflict, and I don't think that September is going to help in achieving peace," Livni told Newsweek.
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As far as statehood is concerned, she added, "At the end of the day, the United Nations is not going to establish a state. It's going to make a declaration. Even after September, something will need to be done in order to establish a state."
Asked about the reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas and its affect on possibilities for peace, Livni rejected the characterization of the deal as a marriage between the two groups.
"It's not a marriage yet. It's only an engagement. The government has not been established yet. It was bad news, this agreement," she said.
Israelis, she explained, "need to ask ourselves, how can we work with those who hopefully are willing to end the conflict with us?"
Discussing the Arab Spring that has and is affecting many of Israel's neighbors, the opposition leader said it is not clear yet whether we are experiencing spring or autumn, which will lead either to summer or winter. "There are two different possibilities" for the outcome of recent events, she said.
"The best-case scenario is that these young people that took to the streets looking for their rights are going to change their own states, and we are going to see more democracy," Livni said on an optimistic note.
However, she warned that winter could also be upon the region, explaining that extremists could "take over and abuse the democratic system in order to spread an agenda which is completely anti-democratic."