Netanyahu's Speech at the UN General Assembly

[bigross86]

This man is a brilliant orator, not scared of saying what needs to be said and calling it like it is. Bloody amazing:
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Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovators, apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was braided — branded, rather — shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel — the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It’s the — the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament.

You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.

You couldn’t make this thing up.

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide — they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is — the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.
That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents — in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday — can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter. That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times — if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don’t worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there’s only one problem with that theory. We’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and make it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn’t defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and UBAM (ph) in Gaza didn’t stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn’t freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don’t think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of — out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even — we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day — in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What’s to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you — would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we’re not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that’s why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it’s as if nothing happened — just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel’s security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you’re all in the city. That’s about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It’s the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don’t forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel’s neighbors.
So how do you — how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can’t defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that’s exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn’t require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an airspace in Cyprus or rather an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they’re not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel’s small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel’s tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It’s not merely the West Bank, it’s the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they’re not theoretical problems. They’re very real. And for Israelis, they’re life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won’t be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.
The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.

And there’s one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven’t given even one Red Cross visit. He’s held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the — in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to — if you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that’s the resolution you should pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago.

Now, don’t you think it’s about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day — in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don’t want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. (Applause.) We want to give up — we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that’s odd. Our conflict has been raging for — was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the — I guess that the settlements he’s talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be’er Sheva. Maybe that’s what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967; he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict. (Applause.)

The settlements have to be — it’s an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it’s time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in 1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they’re ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel’s security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called “Jews”? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I’ve worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn’t respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn’t respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again — no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again — you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn’t like. There were things there about the Jewish state that I’m sure the Palestinians didn’t like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you’ve dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we enable our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That’s what we should aim for, and that’s what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s do as we say in the Middle East: Let’s talk “doogri” (ph). That means straightforward. I’ll tell you my needs and concerns. You’ll tell me yours. And with God’s help, we’ll find the common ground of peace.

There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand — the hand of Israel — in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah — (speaks in Hebrew) — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.

[bigross86]

Benjamin Netanyahu's full speech at the 66th General Debate of the General Assembly of the United Nations

[Double Edge]

So when's the voting happen in the GA & SC ?

How long till we know the result.

[InExile]

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide — they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

He doesn't give a damn about world opinion.

[Dreadnought]

I have to agree with you BR. Well done, its nice to see it can be told the way it is without the political niceities. Straight and Forward. Maybe some will walk away knowing this approach is the best approach and that idiots like Dinnerjacket dont even warrant a seat at the UN as well as a few others that sit as head of certain councils.

[Zinja]

I have to agree with you BR. Well done, its nice to see it can be told the way it is without the political niceities. Straight and Forward. Maybe some will walk away knowing this approach is the best approach and that idiots like Dinnerjacket dont even warrant a seat at the UN as well as a few others that sit as head of certain councils.

But is anybody listening? This is the sad reality of democracy.

[Dreadnought]

But is anybody listening? This is the sad reality of democracy.

At this point it really dont matter, He stated his case clearly and concisely from the Israeli standpoint and thus put the ball on the Palestinians (Abbas) court. Its their choice now, Israel has nothing but time on its hands as it is already a state that is recognized. They dont and they are the ones left "wanting".

When I read this article I was pretty amazed
Abbas returns to hero's welcome - CNN.com

IMO, A real "hero" would have made history on the UN floor yesterday and accepted the hand of peace from Israel if they really intended for it to finally come to an end.

They chose not to thinking they will pressure the rest of the UN to sell out Israeli security for the Israeli's. IMO, their sadly mistaken, the rest of the UN arent fooled and no doubt took notice that Abbas didnt take advantage when he had it offered to him then and there on a silver platter.

[cyppok]

I think the best option is slowly annexing the west bank and be done with this unreasonable concession crap. Also think the push for recognition of Golan by Syria as lost should be slowly pushed through.

I think giving Sinai for ~40 years of peace might have been a heavy price. It would have been best to nuke a couple of cities 20-30 years ago.

I remember reading a very cool book its was the Russian version of some arabic historian chronicalling the Ghenghis invasion of Khwarezm. There was a fanatical province which would constantly rebel against Mongol control, since they were non-believers it was ok to kill them etc, so they killed the Mongol officials once and those responsible were put to death. The province rose up again and this time other leaders killed the Mongol officials again there was vengance. The third time the province religious leaders issued an edict that it was Ok to kill Mongols since they are non believers and rose up in revolt and after that everyone in that province was killed off and those that tried to get out were hunted down to eliminate the sect completely. Brutal but it worked.

[Dreadnought]

I think the best option is slowly annexing the west bank and be done with this unreasonable concession crap. Also think the push for recognition of Golan by Syria as lost should be slowly pushed through.

*I dont forsee Israel ever releasing the Golan to Syria. Thats the most strategic high ground to Israel. As Mr "N" pointed out in his speech it only brought the extremeists closer when they gave them land consessions. He made some very valid points about the US, Brits and the French having troops in other countries that still declare themselves as "soverign". And they are "soverign" nations by all means.

How can you (The UN) recognize this fact and not recognize the Israeli's point? Do as I say and not as I do?

[cyppok]

I think the best option is slowly annexing the west bank and be done with this unreasonable concession crap. Also think the push for recognition of Golan by Syria as lost should be slowly pushed through.

*I dont forsee Israel ever releasing the Golan to Syria. Thats the most strategic high ground to Israel. As Mr "N" pointed out in his speech it only brought the extremeists closer when they gave them land consessions. He made some very valid points about the US, Brits and the French having troops in other countries that still declare themselves as "soverign". And they are "soverign" nations by all means.

How can you (The UN) recognize this fact and not recognize the Israeli's point? Do as I say and not as I do?

The UN is an organization with no feedback loop, it suffers no ill effects from ANY of its resolutions. The beuracracy within it gets paid and in a sense the diplomats within its' ranks do not suffer if bad decisions are made. Ergo if they work well good, if they work bad their pay is the same they just need more resources to fix the bad work so the budget gets a boost, even better.

[Doktor]

The UN is an organization with no feedback loop, it suffers no ill effects from ANY of its resolutions. The beuracracy within it gets paid and in a sense the diplomats within its' ranks do not suffer if bad decisions are made. Ergo if they work well good, if they work bad their pay is the same they just need more resources to fix the bad work so the budget gets a boost, even better.

Welcome to socialism

[astralis]

Netanyahu vs. Abbas at the United Nations: Israel's tactics to delay Palestinian statehood. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine

Occupation Obfuscation
Israel's new tactics to delay Palestinian statehood and blame the Palestinians.
By William Saletan

Posted Monday, Sept. 26, 2011, at 8:46 AM ET

Words don't matter. That's what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for many years about Palestinian promises of peace. What matters is what the Palestinians do. To achieve statehood, they must define clear borders, end legal claims to Israeli land, and help secure Israel against terrorism.

But now that Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is delivering security and pressing for sovereign borders in an appeal to the United Nations, Netanyahu's attitude has changed. The prime minister is finding new reasons to impede or complicate the quest for Palestinian statehood, based on Abbas' words, not his deeds. It's a cynical game of semantics.

On Friday, as both men spoke at the U.N., Netanyahu tried to exploit four key terms:

1. Negotiate. In his speech, Netanyahu framed Abbas' request for U.N. recognition as evidence that "'the Palestinians have refused to negotiate" with Israel. "We need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us," said Netanyahu.

Nonsense. The P.A. has been negotiating with Israel all along. They just don't call it negotiation. Their emissaries meet backstage to negotiate terms of negotiation. It's stubborn, slow, often petty, and seldom productive. But it's still negotiation. In recent months, Abbas has met secretly with Israeli President Shimon Peres at least four times to negotiate possible negotiations.

The Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition is itself a negotiating strategy: Abbas hopes it will give him leverage in talks with Israel. He said so in his speech: U.N. recognition "enhances the chances of success of the negotiations." Abbas blamed the breakdown of talks on Israel's refusal to accept "terms of reference for the negotiations." In other words, Abbas is trying to negotiate better terms for negotiation.

2. Jewish state. Netanyahu told the U.N. that "the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border." More nonsense. The "Jewish state" formula is an issue Netanyahu cooked up in the last couple of years. In 1993, the Palestinian Liberation Organization recognized "the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security." Abbas has reaffirmed this commitment. So Netanyahu has tacked on an additional demand: The recognition must specify Israel's Jewish character.

Why? How Israel defines its religiosity is none of Palestine's business. The only aspects of Israeli statehood Palestine is obliged to affirm are what it has already agreed to: peace and security. So why is Netanyahu hell-bent on the "Jewish" part? Apparently because he thinks it will preclude the asserted right of Palestinians to return to Israeli land they fled in 1948. "We just don't want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state," he told the U.N. "We want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians."

If that's the issue, then say so. Don't paper it over with this "Jewish state" stuff. Three million Palestinians live in Jordan, and many, if not most, would be eligible for a right of return to Israel. Yet Israel's 1994 peace treaty with Jordan includes no acknowledgment of a Jewish state. So you don't need "Jewish state" language to make peace or avert a flood of Palestinians. You just need to negotiate the right of return, or lack thereof.

3. 1948. In his speech, Abbas recalled the "Nakba" (catastrophe) of 1948, in which Palestinians "were forced to leave their homes and their towns" during Israel's war of independence. He told the U.N.: "After 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba: Enough. It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence." These remarks echoed what Abbas said two weeks earlier: "We have been under occupation for 63 years."

Netanyahu pounced on Abbas' words:

He said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that's odd. Our conflict … was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So … I guess that the settlements he's talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be'er Sheva. Maybe that's what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn't say from 1967; he said from 1948.

This is another Netanyahu ploy. Of course Abbas regards all Israeli territory as occupied. That doesn't mean he won't cede it. He explicitly said he would:

In the absence of absolute justice, we decided to adopt the path of relative justice—justice that is possible and could correct part of the grave historical injustice committed against our people. Thus, we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22 percent of the territory of historical Palestine—on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

So when Netanyahu accuses Abbas of refusing to accept Israel's 1948 borders, he isn't identifying a substantive issue. He's using a clash of narratives to cloud the Palestinian case against new West Bank settlements.

4. Peace. Netanyahu told the U.N. that Israel presented a "sweeping peace offer" in 2008, but "President Abbas didn't even respond to it." He charged that "the Palestinians want a state without peace" and that they "should first make peace with Israel and then get their state."

Make peace with Israel? How? By signing a piece of paper? Or by not killing Israelis?

For many years, Netanyahu's principal contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian relationship has been his insistence on "peace with security." What matters, on this view, is what you do, not what you say. If Palestinians sign the Oslo accords but then launch an intifada of suicide bombings against Israel, that isn't peace. And that's exactly what happened under Yasser Arafat, as Netanyahu reminded the U.N.

But in that case, the true measure of Abbas' commitment to peace is Palestinian violence. Abbas became prime minister of the P.A. in 2003 and president in 2005. During his tenure, Palestinian violence against Israelis has plummeted. In 2001 and 2002, more than 3,500 Israeli civilians were wounded in terror attacks, according to official Israeli data. After that, the tally of wounded fell by half almost every year. By 2007, it was down to 110. In 2002, suicide terror attacks killed 220 Israelis. By 2004, that number was down to 55. By 2007, it had fallen to three. So far in 2011, Israel has reported 12 deaths in Israeli territory from Palestinian violence. Of these, virtually all were traced to militants from Gaza, which Hamas controls. The data show no known fatal terror attacks in Israel from the Abbas-controlled West Bank.

None of this invalidates Netanyahu's legitimate concerns. Israel has well-founded fears for its security, backed up by years of Palestinian terrorism and the rise of Hamas in Gaza. Netanyahu is right that Israel's withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza failed to bring peace. Palestinians, intermediary nations, and international bodies will have to do a much better job of planning and delivering Israeli security in a transition to Palestinian statehood.

But facts are facts. Abbas has proved his commitment to peace on the ground, and he has agreed to give up more than three-quarters of the original Palestine. The right of return will have to be negotiated, as will settlements, and no diversionary alarms about the Nakba or acknowledging Israel as a Jewish state will change that. Netanyahu has a tough job ahead of him. All we can ask is that he do it.

[astralis]

Br,

This man is a brilliant orator

unfortunately he's also a strategic moron. under his leadership, he's seen two of israel's closest regional allies turn against israel; the PA coalensce itself diplomatically such that israel feels itself under serious threat at the UN; while hamas is still firmly in control of gaza.

meanwhile, he's so beholden to his even more right-wing allies such as lieberman that he pretty much has no ability to negotiate...not that he really wants to.

so he's a constrained actor at this point, with israel even more dependent upon the US than she was before, both here on the international stage and for her arms.

[Dreadnought]

If Abbas does nothing about Hamas then what can you possibly expect to come from any of this? They are afterall recognized as a terrorist organization on the watch list.

[astralis]

dreadnought,

If Abbas does nothing about Hamas then what can you possibly expect to come from any of this?

not sure what abbas CAN do about hamas. recall the PA lost that particular civil war with hamas. for that matter, even the israelis couldn't clean out hamas when they had the chance.