Netanyahu hopes Obama will not help establish Palestinian state unilaterally

Netanyahu is hoping that Obama will not use his last two months in office, following the U.S. election in November, to make any moves at the U.N. that would push concessions on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 2 News on Saturday night that he hopes U.S. President Barack Obama, before his term ends in January, will not help the Palestinian Authority establish a state unilaterally.

Netanyahu has always insisted on direct negotiations with the Palestinians rather than forced concessions – a theme that he included in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, when he invited PA President Mahmoud Abbas to address the Knesset.

Abbas, on his part, vilified the Jewish state at the Assembly and repeated his oft-issued demand for Israeli concessions, calling on the U.N. to declare 2017 “the international year to end the Israeli ‘occupation’ of our land and our people” and for supporting a French initiative for an international peace conference.

Netanyahu told Channel 2’s Udi Segal that he and Obama had not discussed any US initiative to push the peace process before his presidential term ends in January, nor was there any indication of support for any UN resolution favorable to the Palestinians.

“Did we speak about it? The answer is no. Do I hope that he doesn’t do it? The answer is yes,” the Israeli leader said.

“The only time that President Obama utilized a veto at the United Nation’s Security Council was in 2011, following an anti-Israel decision. Therefore, I can only hope that the US follows the same policy until the end of his term,” he added.

Obama, addressing the U.N. last week, stressed that Israel must end the “occupation.”

By: Atara Beck, World Israel News

French peace initiative