Arab League head says Palestinians to petition U.N.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. / AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed

RAMALLAH, West Bank Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Saturday that two decades of talks with Israel have been "a waste of time" and that Palestinians will soon take a new statehood bid to the U.N.

The U.N. General Assembly last month endorsed a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel won in a 1967 war. But outright recognition of statehood status for Palestine fell short last year before the more powerful U.N. Security Council.

"We will return to the U.N. Security Council," he said in Ramallah Saturday after meeting Palestinian officials. "Palestine will be cooperating with Arab and EU countries to change the equation (in the peace process) that prevailed over the past 20 years, which was a waste of time."

• Palestinians to ask U.N. Security Council to stop Israel settlement expansion plans
• Palestinian vote at U.N. brings recognition, but is a far cry from practical statehood

By mentioning other states and the European Union, some may interpret Elaraby's remarks as implying that the international community should intervene and impose a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Talks collapsed in 2008 after Palestinians demanded Israel stop building in areas they want for a future state. Israel insists settlements and other core issues should be resolved in talks themselves.

[DovBenMen]

There is no Apartheid in Israel, the Levant or anywhere in the Middle East other than in Arab majority countries. There is no eradication of Palestinians underway in the West Bank or Gaza, and the United Nations population figures prove that by showing a population grow rate for Palestinians as being among the highest of any group anywhere on Earth.

Assertions to the contrary are wrong. Repeated assertions to the contrary are hate speech.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

iamproteus says:Perhaps it would be more productive to cooperate with Israel instead of sending rockets at them and demanding that the UN call on the Israelis to lay down and die!
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You seriously expect a people to meekly accept apartheid forever?

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

"two decades of talks with Israel have been "a waste of time"
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Of course it has as Israel has no interest n peace. Israel wants to slowly eradicate the Palestinians and take their land.

[endoilimports]

Wrong!! Consider Israel gave back Gaza and dismantled ALL Israeli settlements by force in the hope it would lead to peace. The only thing they got in return were rockets. It has had to build a wall on its borders to stop suicide bombers. Schools have armed guards to protect against terrorists. It is only 9.3 miles wide at its narrowest, 34 miles wide from Jerusalem! Palestinians unfortunately are driven by a Islamic agenda to destroy a Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic state. Hamas is an extension of The Muslim Brotherhood who just took over Egypt and is instituting Islamic law in their constitution. The UN gave the Palestinians the opportunity to have a state in 1948 but instead they refused. Today they could have peace a Palestinian state if they accepted Israel's right to exist. But as Fahed Mashaal recently stated, their goal is to destroy Israel. So you think it is Israel who has the agenda to eradicate the Palestinians? Face it, you are either very ignorant or just a simple bigot. People like you perpetuate the problem rather than being part of the solution. The focus should be on getting public to pressure the press to write about the Palestinians agenda to destroy Israel as the main roadblock to peace. You can't expect peace until Palestinians accept Israel's right to exist.

[endoilimports]

It is insane to criticize Israel while Hamas is committed to destroy Israel. Fahed Mashaal head of Hamas gave a speech in Gaza in Dec. and restated their objective to destroy Israel and replace it with a Islamic Palestinian state and therefore never negotiate peace. The want every inch of Israel. A large replica of a rocket dominated the stage and children were given small models of rockets.

[endoilimports]

To: NOPARTYLINE, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/08/us-palestinians-hamas-speech-idUSBRE8B708L20121208
You are a perfect example of ignorance of the problem created by the one sided press who is part of the Arab lobby to de-legitimize Israel and continue the cash cow press coverage. While Palestinians who are 94% Muslim want to destroy Israel the press focuses on Israel building some Jerusalem suburbs as if that is the problem. If your "peace partner" wants to destroy you, don't you think that really is the issue? Dah!!
Google Khaled Meshaal and you will find Huffington Post,Cresent online.net but of course it did not make the American press headlines.
GAZA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognize Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.

"Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land," he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.

"We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take."

[iamproteus]

Perhaps it would be more productive to cooperate with Israel instead of sending rockets at them and demanding that the UN call on the Israelis to lay down and die!