Today, in response to President Mahmoud Abbas' request for the Palestinian Liberation Organization to join the United Nations as a full member state, Foreign Affairs Committee member Congressman Chris Murphy released the following statement:
This bid for recognition attempts to take shortcuts to statehood and a final peace deal -- a deal that can only be made by negotiating with Israel. There cannot be lasting security for Israel without an independent Palestinian state. And there cannot be independence for Palestine without peace for Israel. I urge President Abbas to take Prime Minister Netanyahu up on his offer to begin face-to-face negotiations today, in New York. The Israeli and Palestinian people have suffered for too long. The outlines of an agreement are clear. Now the leaders must take practical steps, not grand gestures at the UN, that will bring independence to the Palestinians and security to the Israelis.