Ramallah’s UN moves will lead to Hamas takeover, PM warns

The Palestinian Authority’s unilateral appeals to international bodies, including a statehood bid at the UN Security Council, form a greater threat to the Palestinian Authority than to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

Netanyahu struck out at PA President Mahmoud Abbas, vowing to thwart his bid to gain statehood via appeals to the international community, a day after a draft calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by the end of 2017 was sent to the Security Council.

Abbas “thinks he can threaten us with unilateral steps. He does not understand that they will result in a Hamas takeover in Judea and Samaria, just as occurred in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

“We won’t let that happen,” the prime minister vowed. “We will never agree to unilateral diktats.”

Speaking during a traditional Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel would “always safeguard our security. This is our lesson both from the days of the Maccabees and in our day.”

On Wednesday, Jordan submitted a Palestinian-proposed draft resolution to the UN Security Council that calls for Palestinian statehood and an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017.

The resolution came after months of threats and a last-second diplomatic blitz by the US and other Western countries to soften the language in the draft. The resolution is expected to fail to garner enough support in the 15-member body or be vetoed by the US.

Other Israeli leaders also lashed out at the move, including Strategic Affairs minister Yuval Steinitz, who called it an act of war and threatened Jerusalem would consider dismantling the PA in response.

Netanyahu had earlier warned that the statehood bid would end with the terror group Hamas taking over the West Bank and threatening major Israeli cities.

Abbas on Thursday welcomed a French-backed plan to relaunch peace talks in the framework of an international peace conference, but said that talks should not last more than a year.

“We appreciate the intensive deliberations held with Russia and Egypt, and at the same time stress our readiness to consult and exchange ideas to make our bid successful. This would include serious negotiations that would end the occupation before the end of 2017,” Abbas told Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Thursday.

The final draft submitted by Jordan was somewhat subdued compared to earlier versions reported in Arab media. The proposal calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-June 1967 lines with “mutually agreed, limited, equivalent land swaps.”

It also accepts a “third party presence” in the West Bank following the “full and phased withdrawal” of Israeli forces “over an agreed transition period in a reasonable timeframe,” which would lapse by the end of 2017.

“We will continue with consultations in the UN to gather support for this project,” Abbas was reported as saying by the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Thursday that the option of cutting security coordination with Israel was still on the table, despite a Palestinian decision Sunday to maintain security ties.

Israel has criticized the unilateral Palestinian diplomatic moves, which is says are an attempt to avoid making difficult compromises at the negotiating table.