Israel Slams EU Support For Palestinian Statehood -- 03/26/1999

Israel Slams EU Support For Palestinian Statehood

26 March, 1999

By Patrick Goodenough
CNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief

JERUSALEM (CNS) – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sharply criticized a European Union declaration Thursday offering the EU's strongest support to date for a sovereign Palestinian state.

Netanyahu said it was "regretful that Europe, where a third of the Jewish people perished [in the Holocaust], would see fit to attempt to impose a solution that endangers the state of Israel and its interests."

Israel regarded the move as an attempt to dictate the outcome of final status negotiations.

The declaration, whose wording was agreed by EU foreign ministers meeting in Berlin, is seen as compensation for Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's agreement not to declare a state unilaterally on the Oslo Accords' expiration date, May 4.

Arafat has yet to give such an assurance. A PLO decision-making body will take a final decision next month.

According to the draft, the EU looks forward to early fulfillment of the Palestinians' unqualified right to self-determination, including statehood.

It furthermore raises the prospect that EU states may recognize a Palestinian state "in due course."

The Palestinians' right to self-determination was not subject to "any veto" – a clear indication that even if Israel and the PA fail to reach a negotiated settlement, Israel would still have no power to veto a Palestinian declaration of statehood.

The declaration also calls for a target date for the reaching of a final-status solution, within one year.

A statement released by Netanyahu's office said a Palestinian state would be able to "establish a large army, support itself without limit, frame treaties with regimes seeking the destruction of Israel and serve as a base for enhanced terror against Israel and thus endanger its existence."

An advisor to Arafat, Marwan Kanafani, praised the EU for taking what he called "a very advanced position."

The EU's stance places it ahead of the U.S. on the subject of Palestinian statehood, which the Americans say remains a matter for negotiation.

While Arafat left his meeting with President Bill Clinton Tuesday without receiving clear American support for the Palestinians' right to a state, he did get a pledge from the U.S. to push for accelerated "final status" talks between the PA and Israel.

Ha'aretz reports that the EU declaration was "informally coordinated with Washington."

State Department spokesman James Rubin said after the White House meeting that although he did not think there was a "coordinated strategy," the U.S. had conducted discussions with European officials on this issue.

Meanwhile, the Zionist Organization of America has accused Hillary Clinton of misrepresenting the views of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with regard to Palestinian statehood.

ZOA President Morton Klein said Clinton's claim that Rabin implicitly supported the creation of a Palestinian state was "clearly contradicted by Rabin's lengthy record of statements opposing a Palestinian state."

Clinton was quoted by the New York Times as saying her remarks in favor of a Palestinian state were a "reflection of her discussions" with Rabin, who had told her that "it was very difficult to negotiate with a nonentity."

Said Klein: "Prime Minister Rabin, and all Israelis, have good reason to be concerned about the possible establishment of a Palestinian state. If such a state were created, Israel would be reduced to its precarious, nine-miles-wide borders of 1967 \'85 A PLO-Hamas state – a veritable mini-Iraq – would be situated on Israel's doorstep, in close proximity to the cities where 70 per cent of Israel's population lives."

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