Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat is set to make his most blatant bid yet
to win world approval for an independent Palestinian state when he addresses the
UN General Assembly on September 28. (1998)
As the Digest went to press, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged the
PA not to go ahead with its announced intention to declare statehood next May.
Such a unilateral step, Netanyahu told the UN, would violate the Oslo Accords,
prompt a unilateral response from Israel, and "cause the complete collapse of the
process".
US State Department spokesman, James Rubin, said the US would oppose such
"unilateral action" by the PA.
But Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman noted that the Arab and
Islamic world already recognised a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem,
and that the PA also enjoyed the support of virtually the entire international
community.
He warned that should Israel act militarily to limit the new state, "the Palestinian
people will confront the Israeli military machine with our blood and bodies if
necessary".