Diplomatic lunacy

Palestinian Authority efforts to secure statehood represent an abandonment of the very foundation of the peace process, which requires the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate directly to resolve their conflict. The PA lusts for statehood despite its near-total reliance on foreign aid to prop up its frail economy and the government’s physical and political division between PA-controlled areas on the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The proposition of Palestinian statehood today is ludicrous: This would involve bestowing legitimacy on a government that includes a radical Islamist terrorist group that is committed to the destruction of its neighbor Israel, has championed use of suicide terrorism to murder innocents and has indiscriminately fired thousands of rockets into Israeli towns and cities after Israel withdrew completely from Gaza.

Should the U.N. really grant the precious gift of global recognition to a PA that pays salaries to known terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails, honors suicide terrorists as martyrs and holds them up as role models for children?

The Palestinian strategy for leading the world down this misguided path is insidious. The PA is aiming to drive a wedge between the United States and Israel, undermining America’s role as an honest broker in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and marginalizing our country’s global standing by cloaking anti-Israel intent in the internationalization of the conflict.