A messianic Jewish leader is pleased that the European Union (EU) has rejected an appeal by the Palestinians to recognize a Palestinian state without Israeli consent.
On Monday, Palestinian officials launched an appeal to European member countries to back their plan for gaining recognition as an independent state at the U.N. Security Council without any negotiations with Israel. However, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said such a move was "somewhat premature." Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, agrees with the EU. "The EU clearly has done the right thing and has set the right precedent that you don't skirt negotiation, you just continue to sit down at a peace table," she says. "But I've got to say they can sit down at a peace table with the Israelis for the next 1,000 years and there will be no agreement." Markell says even the current administration in Washington is rejecting a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State. "Even the Obama administration, [which] could not be more hostile to Israel in every possible proclamation and statement, was not behind this Palestinian plan," notes the founder of Olive Tree Ministries. The Palestinians have not set a timetable for presenting a formal proposal to the Security Council, but with the backing of the Arab League, they have been lobbying U.N. member states to support such a proposal when it is submitted.
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