Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today told the United Nations General Assembly that due to Israel’s violations of its agreements with the PLO, the Palestinian leadership does not see itself as beholden to those agreements.

While we recognize the erosion of the Oslo agreement and other accords signed between the PLO and Israel, APN strongly urges the Palestinian leadership to adhere to basic tenets of these agreements. In particular, we urge Abbas and his Palestinian Authority officials to continue abiding by the security agreements with Israel. Abbas recently said that the security cooperation with Israel is “sacred, sacred.” Like Abbas, we recognize that the security cooperation is a matter of saving lives – Israeli and Palestinian alike. We, too, believe in the sacredness of human life, and therefore urge the Palestinians not to abandon their security cooperation with Israel.

APN views Abbas’ statement as an alarm, a warning call for the Obama administration to take action in the United Nations Security Council to resuscitate and re-accredit the two-state solution. What Abbas is saying, correctly, is that a hollow “peace process” provides nothing but cover for the status quo to fester. If Washington wishes to change the status quo, it ought to focus less on the process and more on peace by initiating a UNSC resolution that lays out clear parameters for a future Israeli-Palestinian two-state agreement, grounded in longstanding U.S. positions – supported by both Republican and Democratic presidents – as articulated in the Clinton Parameters.

To read more about the steps that APN recommends the Obama administration take in order to re-energize efforts to achieve a two-state solution, click here