The Speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, said Israel and the US were prepared to pay the price to avoid a collapse of peace talks but the Palestinian Authority went back on agreements.
Yuli Edelstein made the remarks in a meeting with the Friends of Israel Initiative, led by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, after PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s announcement Tuesday that he would sign the paperwork to allow the Palestinians to become a party to 15 U.N. treaties and protocols ‘’as a first step toward joining all UN agencies.’’
The Palestinians were asked not to unilaterally turn to the UN during negotiations, but they did not comply, he said.
“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to sign applications to join international organizations is an outrageous violation of the conditions to renew negotiations, since the Palestinians committed to not taking unilateral steps to receive international recognition during the talks,” Edelstein declared.
Edelstein said the release of Palestinian terrorists, as part of a deal with the Palestinians to start the talks, was a controversial decision in Israel and a high price for talks, but the government was willing to pay it. The prisoners were all convicted for killing Israelis.
The Knesset Speaker said also that the US was prepared to free Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard for the Jewish Passover after nearly 29 years in prison, ‘’which is also a significant gesture.’’
Jonathan Pollard, who is now 59, was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy who was arrested in 1985 after providing classified information to Israeli agents. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for release in November 2015.
According to reports, the United States was considering the release of Pollard as part of a broader deal that would keep the peace talks underway at least through 2015.
The Palestinians would, in turn, have agreed not to pursue recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state or other redress through the United Nations to keep alive hopes for a negotiated solution.
The Palestinians won “non-member observer state” status at the United Nations in 2012. Full membership was blocked in 2011.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has brokered the Israeli-Palestinian talks, and who was in Jerusalem this week for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was premature to write off peace talks even as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he would press for U.N. recognition over Israel's objections.
"We are continuing, even now ... to be engaged with both parties," Kerry said in Brussels, where he was attending a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers on Ukraine. "We urge both sides to show restraint while we work with them. President Abbas has given me his word that he will continue to negotiate until the end of April."
Kerry said he was unsure he would travel to the region.