by Hossam Ezzedine
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Aug 4, 2011 (AFP) - The Palestinians are unlikely to agree to drop their UN membership bid in exchange for new peace talks based on the pre-1967 lines, Palestinian officials and analysts say.
On Tuesday, an Israeli official confirmed that Israel has been working with Washington to hammer out a framework for new peace talks that both countries hope could convince the Palestinians to drop their bid for United Nations membership.
But Palestinian officials and analysts said the Palestinian leadership had already invested heavily in the bid, and would face public disgrace if it agreed to drop the much-touted plan.
They described the new framework for talks as little more than a public relations exercise for Israel, allowing it to show willingness to resume talks while attempting to torpedo the UN membership campaign.
Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, described the framework for talks as an "Israeli bid to thwart the Palestinian move to go the United Nations."
"This is only intended to draw attention from the Palestinian UN bid," he told AFP.
Majdalani said the Palestinian leadership had not been officially presented with any proposal for new talks and had not been involved in any discussions about the prospect.
And he questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desire for new talks, saying he forced the cancellation of a planned meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres, in which the leaders were to discuss the prospects for resuming peace talks.
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since September 2010, when they ground to a halt shortly after they began over the issue of settlement construction.
Israel declined to renew a partial settlement freeze that expired shortly after the talks began, and the Palestinians say they will not negotiate while Israel builds on land they want for their future state.
Instead, the Palestinian leadership has drawn up a plan to approach the UN in September seeking membership for a state on the lines that existed before the Six Day war, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
The plan is firmly opposed by Israel and the United States, which has threatened to veto the membership attempt at the Security Council.
It has also unsettled the European Union, which has yet to take a common stance on the plan and is reportedly working with Israel and Washington to help find a way to restart peace talks and head off the membership bid.
The Palestinians say their initiative does not contradict the possibility of new talks, but insist that they will not return to negotiations without any Israeli settlement freeze and a clear framework for new discussions.
And they say that the talks being proposed now do not offer much hope for any new breakthroughs and are mostly intended to sink their membership gambit.
"We all know that Abbas supports negotiations and the continuation of negotiations, but these negotiations have been going on for 20 years and have produced nothing but failures," said Abdul Rahum Maluh, another PLO official.
"Basically, our position is that going to the UN is a political move that is distinct (from negotiations)."
Hani al-Masri, a Palestinian political analysts, warned that any decision to drop the UN bid "would deal a serious blow to Palestinian public opinion."
Majdalani also said it was a mistake to view the UN bid as an attempt "to pressure Israel to improve our negotiation position, as some seem to think."
"Israel is afraid of the Palestinians going to the United Nations because it is afraid that the UN will give the Palestinians what it doesn't want to give them in negotiations," added Masri.
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