Arabs: "diplomacy" of threats

From JPost, 10/10/2010 By HERB KEINON*:

...The Palestinian Authority announced over the weekend – following the Arab League meeting in Libya  ...that it was considering “alternatives” in case the peace talks collapsed, including seeking US or UN recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

...Erekat said Abbas asked Arab leaders “to press the American administration to recognize an independent Palestinian state within the borders of 1967.” If the Americans reject the request, the Palestinians might take up the issue with the Security Council nonetheless, Erekat said.

...A PA official in Ramallah said the Arab League supported the idea of seeking US or UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

“The Palestinian leadership will give the US administration another chance to solve the crisis,” he said. “If their efforts fail in the next 30 days, we will go to the Americans and the United Nations.”

Israeli officials took the threat in stride. “There is no substitute for direct negotiations and a historic agreement,” one official said. “Everything else is a mirage.”

The official, who said these types of threats were part of the PA’s diplomacy, added that such proposals have not proven serious when raised many times in the past, and that the PA understood that only a negotiated solution could bring peace.

He added that over the past year the Palestinians have alternated threats to go to the UN Security Council searching for recognition of Palestinian statehood, with the threat of abandoning the two-state idea and instead pursuing a “one-state solution.”

...similar proposals in the past have not been embraced by Washington, which consistently has said it wanted to see a negotiated – rather than imposed – settlement...
*Khaled Abu Toameh and AP contributed to this report.