Foxman: US must stop Palestinians from declaring state
Anti-Defamation League head says "pipe dream" of declaring statehood without making concessions or sacrifices must be given up.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANAbe Foxman 311(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
US President Barack Obama’s administration must take steps to prevent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from declaring the creation of a state unilaterally.So said Anti-Defamation League national director Abe Foxman in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Tuesday night.RELATED:Clinton: Talks the only way to move forward toward peaceICC: Can PA complain of crimes on 'Palestinian territory'?Foxman, who has been a close adviser to American presidents on Israel and other issues for decades, said immediate action was needed by Obama in light of reports that the Palestinians were considering declaring a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The declaration, Foxman added, might be supported by the European Union and United Nations.“I am frustrated by the silence and hesitancy of the [Obama] administration on Palestinian talk of unilaterally declaring a state. Now is the time to send a message to the Palestinians and Middle Eastern and European nations that the US will not tolerate and sanction this, because if it doesn’t send that message, it will undermine Israel’s feeling that the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority will be conducted in good faith.”Foxman added that now was the ideal time to make this clear to the Palestinians, because Obama had demonstrated he would continue to single out Israel publicly on settlements – as in his September 23 speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Foxman noted that State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to address the matter in a recent press conference.“It needs to be made clear to the Palestinians that they have to give up this pipe dream that their Arab and Europeans friends will give them a state without them having them to make concessions or sacrifices,” said Foxman.
