“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14)
The Palestinian Authority has submitted a draft of a UN Security Council resolution through member nation Jordan, setting a one-year deadline for reaching a peace deal with Israel, and the end of 2017 as the deadline for total Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, Israel’s ancient heartland, which includes east Jerusalem.
The move to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state comes amid growing international pressure to recognize a Palestinian statehood, with a series of European parliaments asking their governments to recognize a Palestinian state.
Israel opposes the Security Council imposing a solution, insisting on bilateral negotiations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome on December 15, 2014. (GPO Photo by Amos Ben Gershom)
United States Secretary of State John Kerry was in Europe for three days before the resolution was submitted, seeking to prevent a showdown at the United Nations.
“We haven’t seen the language yet; we don’t know precisely what was filed,” he said, adding, “We don’t have any problem with them filing some resolution providing it’s done in the spirit of working with people to see how we could proceed forward in a thoughtful way that solves the problem [and] doesn’t make it worse.” (Times of Israel)
While lighting the Hanukkah candles at his office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented that “Abbas thinks that by taking unilateral steps, he threatens us; he doesn’t understand that their result will be Hamas taking over the West Bank.”
He added, “We will never allow this and will never accept unilateral diktats. We will always protect our security.” (JPost)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kindles the lights of the Hanukkah menorah at the Western Wall.
Meanwhile, after Gaza terrorists fired a rocket at Israel on Friday, the third since the ceasefire in August, Israel retaliated, firing on a cement factory.
At a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded saying, “Israel’s safety comes first. I won’t allow even one rocket, and that is why the IAF responded to the rocket and destroyed a cement factory that was making cement to repair tunnels that were hit during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas will be held responsible for every escalation. We will protect Israel’s safety.”
At a Chanukah ceremony with soldiers at an army base Sunday night, Netanyahu said Israel was being attacked simultaneously on two fronts.
“It is attacked by the terrorism of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and is also subject to the diplomatic offensive led by the Palestinian Authority, which is intended to strip us of our right to defend ourselves and directed at eliminating the legitimacy of our existence,” he said.
