'The Arabs Plan Unprecedented Bloodshed in September'

State Department officials to suggest postponing bid for two years • Palestinians: Many more countries will soon recognize Palestinian state • European Union representative condemns plan to build 930 homes in Har Homa.

The Palestinians are preparing "unprecedented violence and bloodshed" in September, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Sunday.

Briefing reporters at the Knesset on Sunday, Lieberman said he will ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut all ties with the Palestinian Authority. "We must cut ties even with [PA Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad's people, the water committees, the Foreign Ministry, and even the security cooperation units," Lieberman said.

"It is unacceptable that on the one hand we have security coordination, while on the other hand the Palestinians sue IDF officers for war crimes at The Hague court," he added.

Meanwhile, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Palestinian Authority presidential adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh are scheduled to head to Washington in the next few days for talks with senior State Department officials, who are expected to unveil a new diplomatic proposal that aims to postpone the Palestinians' bid for a unilateral declaration of statehood at the U.N. this September, Arab media reported Saturday.

The Palestinians have announced that they plan to go to the U.N. General Assembly next month to try to obtain a two-thirds or higher majority from the 193 member nations for international recognition of a Palestinian state. The U.S., one of five permanent U.N. Security Council members with veto power, has been working to thwart the Palestinians' efforts and to find ways to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Senior Palestinian officials told Arab media that details of the new proposal have yet to be outlined. In Washington, however, officials are determined to persuade the Palestinian Authority to postpone its unilateral bid for statehood for at least two years.

A source in Ramallah told Israel Hayom on Friday that the Palestinian leadership was willing to renew direct negotiations with Israel in tandem with its bid for statehood in the U.N.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki announced Saturday that a number of countries, including Honduras and South Sudan, plan to recognize a Palestinian state in the near future. Lebanon, which until now has been the only Arab country that has not declared its support for the bid, is expected to do so this week when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visits there.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, harshly condemned Interior Minister Eli Yishai over his approval of the construction of 930 new housing units in the Har Homa neighborhood in Jerusalem.

“The European Union has repeatedly urged the government of Israel to immediately end all settlement activities in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. All settlement activities are illegal under international law,” the French news agency AFP quoted Ashton as saying in a statement.

Russia also blasted the construction plan, saying it was “seriously concerned about Israel's new plans to build 900 houses in the settlement of Har Homa in Jerusalem's eastern neighborhood.”

“We have repeatedly stated Russia's position condemning Israel's building activities on the occupied Arab territories,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. “Moscow considers such activities as striving to create new realities in the region and predetermine the outcome of Palestinian-Israeli final status talks.”