UNITED NATIONS: Defying U.S. and Israeli opposition, Palestinians asked the United Nations Friday to accept them as a member state, sidestepping nearly two decades of failed negotiations in the hope this dramatic move on the world stage would re-energize their quest for an independent homeland.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was greeted by sustained applause and appreciative whistles as he approached the dais to deliver a speech outlining his people’s hopes of becoming a full member of the U.N. Some members of the Israeli delegation, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann, left the hall as Abbas approached the podium.

Negotiations with Israel “will be meaningless” as long as it continues building on lands the Palestinians claim for that state, he declared, warning that his government could collapse if the construction persists. That would put 150,000 people out of work.

“This policy is responsible for the continued failure of the successive international attempts to salvage the peace process,” said Abbas, who has refused to negotiate until construction stops. “This settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority.”

To another round of applause, he held up a copy of the formal membership application and said he had asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to expedite deliberation of his request to have the U.N. recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

The U.N. Security Council will meet Monday afternoon to discuss the request, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nawaf Salam, the council’s president, told reporters.
Ban has to examine the application before referring it to the Security Council. Action on the membership request could take weeks, if not months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the General Assembly shortly after the Palestinian leader, said his country was “willing to make painful compromises.”

“I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace,” he said.
Palestinians, Netanyahu added, “should live in a free state of their own, but they should be ready for compromise” and “start taking Israel’s security concerns seriously.”

To be sure, Abbas’ appeal to the U.N. to recognize an independent Palestine would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and continue to severely restrict access to Gaza. The strategy has put the Palestinians in direct confrontation with the U.S., which has threatened to veto their membership bid in the council, reasoning, like Israel, that statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties to end the long and bloody conflict.

Also hanging heavy in the air was the threat of renewed violence over frustrated Palestinian aspirations, in spite of Abbas’ vow – perceived by Israeli security officials as genuine – to prevent Palestinian violence.
Yet by seeking approval at a world forum overwhelmingly sympathetic to their quest, Palestinians hope to make it harder for Israel to resist already heavy global pressure to negotiate the borders of a future Palestine based on lines Israel held before capturing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967.

“We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peacemaking,” Abbas said. “Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring states – Palestine and Israel – instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other,” he said.

Palestinians say they turned to the U.N. in desperation over 18 failed years of peace talks. They say they decided to reinvigorate their flagging statehood campaign by bringing it to the broadest possible international forum – the U.N. – in the hope an enhanced world status would pressure Israel to act more boldly.
Netanyahu insists his commitment to peacemaking is genuine and accuses the Palestinians of going to the U.N. specifically to avoid negotiations.

International mediators have been furiously trying to piece together a formula that would let the Palestinians abandon their plan to ask the Security Council for full U.N. membership, and instead make do with asking a sympathetic General Assembly to elevate their status from permanent observer to nonmember state – a lesser option but one that would be widely expected and seen as still valuable to the Palestinians because of the implicit recognition of the pre-1967 borders.

The U.S. and Israel have been pressuring Security Council members to either vote against the plan or abstain when it comes up for a vote. The vote would require the support of nine of the council’s 15 members to pass, but even if the Palestinians could line up that backing, a U.S. veto is assured.
Following the address Friday, the “Quartet” of Middle East mediators proposed that Israel and the Palestinians meet within one month to agree on an agenda for resumed peace talks.

In a statement, the “Quartet” – the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia – said it wanted to see comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and substantial progress within six months.

The aim would be to reach a peace agreement before the end of 2012, said the statement, issued after a meeting between U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The resumption of talks seems an elusive goal, with both sides digging in to positions that have tripped up negotiations for years.