http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Palestinians+warned+over+statehood/5063145/story.htmlThe U.S. House of Representatives closed ranks Wednesday to warn the Palestinians that they risk cuts in U.S. aid if they pursue UN recognition of a future state not defined in direct talks with Israel.
A resolution to that effect had 320 co-sponsors out of the often polarized chamber's 435 voting members and was on track to sail to passage late in the day, one week after the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a similar measure.
The bill also urged U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to consider suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority pending a view of a unity deal between president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the radical Islamist movement Hamas.
"Any Palestinian unity government must publicly and formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel's right to exist and reaffirm previous agreements made with Israel," it says.
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer crafted the measure.
The measure reaffirmed American support for a two-state solution that would see "a democratic, Jewish state of Israel and a viable, democratic Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition."
But it warned of "serious implications for the United States assistance programs for the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority" if they seek UN recognition of a future state not crafted in talks with Israel.
Peace talks ground to a halt in September 2010 when Israel failed to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Since then, the Palestinians have refused to return to talks.
They are planning to seek recognition of their state within the 1967 lines that preceded the Six-Day War when the UN General Assembly meets in September, despite opposition of Israel and the United States.