Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warns that if the Palestinian Authority takes unilateral steps for statehood, Israel will reply in kind.
He did not detail to reporters what measures Israel could take, but he has previously suggested that Israel could cancel previous agreements with the Palestinian Authority and annex parts of Judea and Samaria. The PA has violated virtually all previous agreements, and the Oslo Accords and the American Roadmap Plan are considered to be dead by almost all observers.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to appeal to the United Nations to recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent state within Israel’s current borders. The move violates previous agreements that call for a negotiated pact with Israel.
Lieberman said that accepting the PA in the United Nations would allow it to request a seat on the International Court in The Hague, where it accused Israel of war crimes in its counterterrorist campaign, Operation Cast Lead, in Gaza more than two years ago.
Concerning Abbas' demands of Israel, the Foreign Minister said in a meeting with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, "I do not think Abbas deserves any kind of gesture from Israel.”
He also said that he wants to improve ties through a diplomatic compromise but added Israel doesn’t have to subject itself to “humiliation” by apologizing for the Navy commando action against IHH-terrorist activists on the flotilla last year that was headed for Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Lieberman said that apologizing would be an act of “abandoning soldiers” who were brutally attacked on the Mavi Marmara ship until they were able to take control of the boat and prevent it from continuing to Gaza.