Palestinian UN bid violates existing agreements

Palestinians' UN bid violated existing agreements with Israel and the Israeli government will " act accordingly" in response, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday in a statement issued shortly after the UN General Assembly voted for Palestine's non-member state status at the world body. "This is a meaningless decision that will not change anything on the ground," said the statement. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that there will be no establishment of a Palestinian state without an agreement to ensure the security of Israel's citizens. He will not allow a base for Iranian terrorism to be established in Judea and Samaria (bibilical reference to the West Bank)," it added. The statement iterated that Israel is open to renew the peace process in "direct negotiations without preconditions and not by a one-sided UN decision." In a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, the 193-member United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution upgrading the status of Palestine from a non-member observer entity to a non- member observer state. Among the opponents were Canada and the United States. In a stern speech prior to the vote, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and likened the Israeli reign of the occupied 1967 territories as that of an apartheid state. However, he said the Palestinians haven't come to the UN to delegitimize Israel but rather to affirm the legitimacy of a Palestinian state, in what he called the last chance for peace based on the two-state solution. In a separate statement, Netanyahu's office called Abbas' speech as "defamatory and venomous" and "full of mendacious propaganda against the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the citizens of Israel." According to reports in Israeli news outlets, the Prime Minister's office made great efforts to try and downplay the meaning of the UN's vote and the reports of a diplomatic defeat. Israeli officials are trying to get Abbas in the line of diplomatic fire for making unilateral moves and by that breaching current agreements with Israel. In the past week officials have been backtracking on earlier threats made towards the Palestinian National Authority in response to their move, fearing a backlash of criticism from the international community. Israel's standings within the international community had deteriorated since the peace process with the Palestinians came to a halt in 2010 over the construction in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The international community has repeatedly condemned Israel for expanding its construction in the settlements and there have been calls to ban or mark products that are produced in the settlements.