Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed earlier today the Palestinian bid for non-member state status at the United Nations, emphasizing that while Israeli seeks to live in peace alongside a Palestinian state, the diplomatic gambit set for tonight “doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards.” The Palestinian move, which is being done in “defiance” of American policy and President Obama’s requests, and which has already damaged American diplomacy, is according to Palestinian officials designed to set up an international campaign of lawsuits against Israel and Israelis. Unilaterally seeking to declare a state in the West Bank violates the Palestinians’ Oslo Accord commitments to refrain from “steps that will change the status of the West Bank… pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations,” and today’s resolution is being described negatively by pro-Israel activists and positively by Palestinian officials as damaging to the decades-old peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube]