Israel should not oppose the Palestinian bid to obtain non-member status at the United Nations given it did not contradict a two-state solution to the conflict, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks made public Thursday dpa reported.
The comments came in a letter to writer Bernard Avisahi and were published on the US news website The Daily Beast hours before the UN General Assembly was set to vote on the Palestinian request, which in effect is tacit recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Olmert's view contradicts the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which says the step breaches previous agreements stating that all outstanding issues, including the creation of a Palestinian state, should be settled through talks.
"Once the United Nations will lay the foundation for this idea, we in Israel will have to engage in a serious process of negotiations, in order to agree on specific borders based on the 1967 lines, and resolve the other issues," Olmert wrote.
He added that moderate Palestinian leaders such as President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad should be strengthened.
The two men, he wrote, "need our help. It's time to give it." A one-time hardliner, Olmert was one of the founders of the centrist Kadima party, and led it to victory in the 2006 elections. He spent a year negotiating peace with Abbas, and was reportedly close to a deal before being forced to resign over corruption allegations.
Since Netanyahu came to power in 2009, there have been no Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, apart from one month in late 2010.
Those talks broke down after Israel refused to extend a limited moratorium on construction in its West Bank settlements.