On time, on schedule, just as predicted:





US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”

“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better,” the US president said at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Earlier on Tuesday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.
“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.







United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.
Speaking at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York for the final time as UN chief, Ban gave a wide-ranging address focused largely on the Syrian civil war, which has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people since March 2011.

On stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel “are being lowered by the day.”
“It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness,” he said, adding that West Bank settlements were “obstacles to progress.”

“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.


Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized some of Ban’s comments, charging that “the real madness is of the UN’s.”

“Instead of slamming the incitement and the terror [on the part of Palestinians], instead of bringing [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to the negotiating table, the secretary general has chosen once again to attack Israel,” he said in a statement, adding that this is a “crazy obsession regarding Israel and it must stop.”

“At a time when Palestinian terror has returned to Israeli streets, the secretary-general has chosen to attack Israel and not the terrorism and has ignored the direct responsibility of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and the Palestinian leadership who continue to incite terror,” Danon added.
At least six Israelis were injured in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks over the past week, one of them seriously.






Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York on Tuesday hoping to convince the international community of the need for one standard in fighting terrorism, only to be greeted by a speech from the head of the UN that slammed Israel and made no mention of Palestinian terrorism.

“As a friend of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, it pains me that this past decade has been 10 years lost to peace,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness. This is madness.”


US President Barack Obama, in his farewell address to the UN, also made no mention of Palestinian violence in the one sentence he devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, referring instead to Palestinian incitement.



Netanyahu, just before leaving for New York where he will meet with both Obama and Ban on the margins of the General Assembly meeting that began Tuesday, said Israel expects the international community to have “one standard” in the war against terrorism, hinting at a double standard the world uses when it comes to terrorism against Israelis.


In a preview of what is likely to be one of the main themes of his address, and in the wake of the recent uptick in stabbing attacks, Netanyahu said he will “speak Israel’s truth there. I will speak about Israel’s justice and heroism, the heroism of our soldiers, police officers and citizens who are waging an uncompromising struggle against cruel terrorism.


“I expect one standard from the international community in the war against terrorism,” he said. “The international community says there is a need to fight terrorism with determination and in an uncompromising manner.

Therefore they also need to support Israel’s determined and uncompromising struggle against terrorism.” Moral clarity, he said, “is essential to fight and defeat terrorism.”

Just last week, after Ban criticized Netanyahu for releasing a video accusing Palestinians of attempting to conduct ethnic cleansing of Jews in a future Palestinian state, Danon responded that Ban had a “distorted view of the situation in Israel.”

“Instead of directly condemning Hamas for building tunnels and a terrorist infrastructure, instead of investing resources in stopping Palestinian incitement and terrorism, the secretary-general has chosen to regularly condemn Israel,” he added.