Israel moves to thwart Palestinian UN bid

Leaked diplomatic memos show Israel fighting a Palestinian goal of statehood recognition in September.

TEL AVIV // Israel's foreign ministry has launched a diplomatic attack against the Palestinian bid for international statehood recognition in September, according to confidential cables leaked to Israeli media.
All Israeli diplomats' holidays planned for September will be cancelled to free up them up to lobby the governments in their respective countries against the Palestinian move, a report in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited the documents as saying. Other tactics include mobilising local Jewish communities worldwide to take part in the lobbying efforts and ensuring Israel's side is well publicised in the local media.
The steps were outlined in secret memos that were dispatched to Israeli embassies in the past few days by the director-general of the foreign ministry, Rafael Barak, and several department heads.
The Israeli government has been increasingly concerned that a successful Palestinian bid for international recognition of their state would further isolate Israel in the international arena.
Israel has already been under international condemnation for a continuing settlement expansion that largely prompted a suspension of peace talks last September. The Palestinians said they were seeking the UN recognition because they had little hope of reaching a peace agreement following nearly two decades of on-and-off negotiations and amid their belief that the current right-wing Israeli government has no intention of clinching a pact.
While the UN General Assembly appeared likely to pass a resolution recognising a Palestinian state, such a measure would probably not be accepted by the UN Security Council, where the US - a staunch Israeli ally - is one of five permanent members within veto power.
Still, it remains far from clear whether the Palestinians would fully pursue their plan. Several top Palestinian officials are quietly advising Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to drop the goal amid US opposition, the Associated Press reported yesterday.
The report cited the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that Mr Abbas would like to "climb down from the tree" and find a mutually acceptable formula for renewing peace talks. However, Mr Abbas would prefer to have the negotiations based on a framework suggested last month by Barack Obama, the US president, which has faced rejection from Israel.
Most prominently, Israel has opposed the condition that its future borders with the Palestinian state should be based on its own boundaries before the 1967 Middle East war, when it occupied territories including the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
While Mr Abbas is still committed to his plan, the AP report cited the officials as saying that the president has left himself little room to manoeuvre and may push through with the UN resolution to avoid losing credibility. Indeed, the Palestinians have not indicated what they would do should their statehood bid win the UN's recognition. "We are trapped with September," said one official to the news agency. "We don't know what to do after that."
Israel, however, does not appear to be taking any chances that the Palestinians would drop their plan.
Mr Barak, was quoted in one of the cables as saying: "The target that we have set was to reach a maximum number of countries that would oppose the UN's recognition of a Palestinian state."
Indicating that the Israeli government is far from certain that its lobbying activities would pay off, Mr Barak added: "The task before us is far from being easy, but I am sure that with joint efforts we will do our best to reach our goal."
Haaretz cited an unidentified official in the ministry as saying that the instructions include not excluding any country from the battle plan and aiming to communicate Israel's concerns with the highest possible government officials. The goal, according to the memos, was to persuade those countries to oppose the Palestinian measure or abstain from the vote at the UN.
The plan assesses that the European Union remains divided on the Palestinian bid, with countries such as Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal supporting it while Germany and Italy oppose the resolution. Israel's far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, plan to soon separately visit countries that are still undecided, including Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Mr Barak added that a so-called "September forum" has been created in the ministry, receiving update reports from each embassy every week.
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