Israel mulls recognizing Palestinian state

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is mulling giving Palestinians immediate statehood recognition if they drop a U.N. bid, an official says. A document was drawn up by Israeli diplomats and ministry staff last weekend in Vienna concerning the issue, an unnamed senior foreign ministry told Haaretz Wednesday. The newspaper published portions of the document. "In the event that the Palestinians give up going to the U.N., Israel must reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority for a Palestinian state along provisional borders, during a transition period -- until the stabilization of the Arab world, new elections in the Palestinian Authority, and a clarification of the relations between the West Bank and Gaza," the document states. The document being considered by Lieberman states Israel would immediately recognize a Palestinian state in provisional borders, giving Palestinians total or semi-control over 40-50 percent of the West Bank. No deadline would be set for permanent borders, which would be negotiated with other core issues. Palestinians would commit to refrain from unilateral steps, including approaching the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Israel will be willing to freeze construction of West Bank settlements in areas other than three areas -- Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, the document says. If the Palestinians pursue the Nov. 29 bid, in which they said they plan to ask the United Nations an upgraded status, Israel will take severe action that will "upturn every future arrangement that would have been considered acceptable by Israel completely impossible," Haaretz said. "A reality in which the United Nations recognizes a Palestinian state according to a unilateral process will destroy all Israeli deterrence and completely harm its credibility," the document states.