ISR - PAL DEBATE PEACE AT UN

Palestinians, Israelis debate peace U.N. By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer APR 26,07

UNITED NATIONS - Palestinians called on Israel Wednesday to seize the opportunity to negotiate peace without preconditions, but Israel refused and accused the Palestinian government of waging a terror campaign. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, told the U.N. Security Council that the formation of a Palestinian government of national unity and the relaunch of the Arab Peace Initiative adopted at an Arab summit in 2002 offered a chance to move forward and revive the peace
process.This historic opportunity ... should not be lost like so many before it, he said. On the Palestinian side, we are willing and ready, and President (Mahmoud) Abbas, with support and a mandate from all Palestinian political groups, is prepared to negotiate unconditionally final status issues.If there is a partner for peace on the Israeli side to negotiate with us without conditions, we are ready, Mansour said.

But Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman made clear that as long as Hamas remains part of the Palestinian government and refuses to agree to all three conditions set by the international community recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence, and a honoring previous agreements his government will not negotiate.Hamas has shown it will not stop its campaign of terror until its unholy ambitions of destroying Israel are fulfilled, Gillerman said. Nothing no initiatives, summits or declarations can take the place of an end to Palestinian terror.If there are any skeptics, he said, the Hamas-led government showed its true colors on Tuesday when Hamas, by its own account, fired more than 28 homemade rockets and 61 mortars into Israel and declared an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in effect since November null and void.Gillerman said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would continue to meet with Abbas, whose Fatah party recognizes Israel, but we will fight Hamas as if there were no Abbas.

He also warned the Palestinians and others in the region not to regard Israel's restraint as a sign of acquiescene. U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff told the council there is a growing consensus supporting the vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace, and an urgent desire to achieve it. Palestinians must know that their state will be viable. Israelis must know that a future state of Palestine will not be a threat. While we are not yet at final status negotiations, these important issues can and should be discussed now, Wolff said.