Israeli politicians responded on Friday morning to the United Nation's decision on Thursday night to vote in favor of the recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state.
Former
Kadima head Tzipi Livni, who is running for the 19th Knesset with a new
party, told Israel Radio that the government should have had talks with
the Palestinians in order to prevent the unilateral UN move.
Livni
called the Palestinian UN move a "strategic terrorist attack" and said
Israel will be weakened in any future negotiations with the Palestinians
as a result of the move.
The "Tzipi Livni Party" leader said the
legitimacy the Palestinians received from the UN would allow them
to found a state in the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as their capital
without the need to have negotiations with Israel and without Israel's
position being represented.
"We are not the ones initiating the move, it is being forced on us, and this is bad," Linvi added.
"The
gap between the government's threats to the Palestinians [and its
actions] resulted in legitimacy for Hamas following the Gaza operation
and now, also, in legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority in the UN,"
Livni told Israel Radio.
On the other hand, Vice Premier Silvan
Shalom insisted to Israel Radio that the Palestinian decision to go to
the UN in a unilateral move shows that only Israel honors previous
agreements reached with the PA.
"Both Israel and the Palestinians
were in favor of having negotiations," Shalom said. "Livni and [former
prime minister] Olmert were willing to give up 98% of Palestinian
territories and even then could not reach an agreement [with PA
President Abbas]," he added.
He added that Netanyahu has accepted
both of Abbas's preconditions - to accept the two-state solution and to
freeze building in the settlements for ten months - and that even then
an agreement could not be reached.
Shalom lamented that the
Palestinian move pushed the possibility of reaching a peace agreement
further away, and called for unilateral steps on Israel's side, like
annexing the territories between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem.
By
supporting the Palestinian statehood bid, European countries gave
legitimacy to the fact the Palestinians do not honor agreements, he
said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the countries who
opposed the UN vote last night to upgrade the status of the Palestinian
Authority at the United Nations to observer status, Israel Radio
reported.
Netanyahu commented: "Nine states lined up on the side
of truth and peace. History will judge them favorably and all are worthy
of praise."