Abbas stakes Palestinian claim to state at U.N.

 UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Palestinian President  Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations today to recognize a  state for his people, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu said only direct negotiations could deliver peace.  
 Abbas handed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter  requesting full U.N. membership, which the Security Council  will consider on Monday. The United States has vowed to use its  veto if it comes to a vote.  
 “I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience  can reject our application for a full membership in the United  Nations and our admission as an independent state,” Abbas told  the U.N. General Assembly, which gave him a standing ovation.  
 Trying to head off a clash in the Security Council, a  quartet of Middle East mediators urged a return to peace talks  within four weeks, “substantial progress” within six months and  an agreement to be struck within a year.  
 The Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European  Union and the United Nations — asked Israel and the  Palestinians to submit proposals on territory and security  within three months.  
 Previous proposed timetables for negotiations, such as a  one-year deadline set by former U.S. President George W. Bush  in 2007 and one by Obama a year ago, have run into the sand.  
 Abbas’ statehood ploy exposes waning U.S. influence in a  region shaken by Arab revolts and shifting alliances that have  pushed Israel, still militarily strong, deeper into isolation.  
 In their speeches, Abbas and Netanyahu both said they  extended their hands to the other party, but each blamed their  opponents for the failure of past peace efforts.  
 “We cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions,”  Netanyahu said, demanding that the Palestinians recognize  Israel as the Jewish state, something they reject because they  say that would prejudice the rights of Palestinian refugees.  
 Netanyahu offered to meet Abbas immediately in New York,  minutes after Abbas said settlement activity must cease first.  
 LOSS OF FAITH  
 Abbas’ statehood request reflects a loss of faith after 20  years of failed peace talks sponsored by the United States,  Israel’s main ally, and alarm at relentless Israeli settlement  expansion eating into occupied land Palestinians want for a  state.  
 “This (settlement) policy will destroy the chances of  achieving a two-state solution and … threatens to undermine  the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even  end its existence,” Abbas declared.  
 It was the first time he has spoken so starkly of the PA’s  possible demise, highlighting the predicament faced by a body  set up as a state-in-waiting but now seen by its critics as  little more than a big municipality, managing the civilian  affairs of the main Palestinian cities under Israeli  occupation.  
 Dissolution of the PA would throw responsibility for ruling  all of the West Bank back to Israel as the occupying power.  
 Israeli and U.S. politicians have threatened financial  reprisals that could cripple the PA, the source of 150,000  jobs.  
 Israeli delegates stayed in the hall during Abbas’ speech,  which was punctuated by applause, especially when he recalled  his predecessor Yasser Arafat’s 1974 admonition to the United  Nations: “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”