Olmert: no reason to oppose Palestinian bid for UN recognition

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that “no reason to oppose” the Palestinian bid for UN recognition. Olmert said that the General Assembly decision, expected on Thursday, “lays the foundation for the idea” of a two-state solution, according to the Israeli daily (Haaretz). “I believe that the Palestinian request from the United Nations is congruent with the basic concept of the two-state solution. Therefore, I see no reason to oppose it,” Olmert wrote Hebrew University Professor Bernard Avishai in a post published on the Daily Beast’s Open Zion blog, according to Haaretz. “Once the United Nations will lay the foundation for this idea, we in Israel will have to engage in a serious process of negotiations, in order to agree on specific borders based on the 1967 lines, and resolve the other issues,” Olmert said.