A Foreign Ministry position paper includes the ouster of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as one possible tactic for dealing
with the PA's bid to gain the status of a non-member state at the UN,
Channel 2 reported on Wednesday.
Abbas plans to push ahead with the Palestinian unilateral bid to ask the UN General Assembly to upgrade their status to that of a non-member state on November 29.
According
to the Channel 2 report, the Foreign Ministry recommended that Israel
use information on Abbas obtained from Palestinian opposition websites
of corruption allegations in order to smear his name and delegitimize
him.
This was one of several recommendations the position paper
presented. If the Palestinians abandon their UN bid, the position paper
recommends that Israel reach an agreement with the PA to recognize it as
a state in temporary borders during a transitional period, according to
Channel 2.
On Wednesday morning, Environmental Protection
Minister Gilad Erdan called for the government to annex all West Bank
settlements.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Erdan called for
the "immediate annexation of the Jewish population" in the West Bank in
response to the Palestinian Authority's attempt to upgrade its status at
the United Nations.
When asked if he was concerned that annexing
the settlements would anger the United States, Erdan responded that as
long as the PA was going against American wishes at the UN, Israel
should not sit idly by without acting. "We don't always see eye-to-eye
with the US," he said.
European and Arab foreign ministers failed to jointly endorse the unilateral Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, calling instead for a negotiated two-state solution.
The Palestinians already have the majority necessary to pass their resolution in the General Assembly, which would be viewed as de facto recognition of statehood. But they want to secure the support of Europe, which remains divided on the subject.
Israel
believes that at least six EU nations will stand with the Palestinians:
Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain, Belgium and Ireland. Separately
China, which often supports the Palestinians at the UN, said Tuesday it
would do so in this case as well.