Pat Dollard

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Netanyahu decides to address the UN General Assembly next Friday, the day the Palestinians will submit their statehood bid.

Haaretz:

Israel would agree to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s status at the United Nations as long as it is not declared a state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in talks with Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, over the past few days.

On Thursday Netanyahu decided to address the UN General Assembly next Friday, the day the Palestinians will submit their statehood bid.

Meanwhile, the Foreign ministry summoned the ambassadors of five key EU members Thursday to rebuke them over their countries’ policy on the Palestinians’ bid for UN recognition as a state.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that his speech to the United Nations would stress that negotiations are the only road to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The General Assembly is not a place where Israel usually receives a fair hearing,” he said at a press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas at his Jerusalem residence. “But I still decided to tell the truth before anyone who would like to hear it.”

Netanyahu is scheduled to speak at 2 A.M. Israel time, a few hours after PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

U.S. President Barack Obama is to be in New York at the same time Netanyahu is there, but no meeting has been scheduled between the two.

Netanyahu continued his talks with U.S. envoys Dennis Ross and David Hale on Thursday, as well as Ashton and Quartet envoy Tony Blair, in an attempt to reach a compromise that would prevent an Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN. But no breakthrough was made, and the PA’s appeal to the United Nations next week is regarded as inevitable.