The meeting on Wednesday – a half-hour, US officials said, longer according to the Israelis – took place at a Manhattan hotel on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
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I invite you (Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) to speak to the Israeli people at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians quickly rejected the invitation as a “new gimmick” created to mask what they described as Israel’s intransigence on moving forward with the Mideast peace process. As it happened, the only speech between the two Middle East neighbors was given by the prime minister of Norway, where the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations took place leading to the 1993 Oslo accords.
Israeli technological firms and start-ups will present their innovative solutions to over 15 presidents, prime ministers and ministers from Africa and developing countries, and to dozens of ambassadors, senior United Nations officials and private sector representatives from around the world.
“The sooner the U.N.’s obsession with Israel ends, the better”, Netanyahu said.
“The better for Israel, the better for your countries, the better for the United Nations itself”, he said.
“The war against Israel at the United Nations is over”.
“What the Israeli government is doing in pursuit of its expansionist settlement plans will destroy whatever possibility is left for the two-state solution along the 1967 borders”, Abbas warned.
“In June 2017 half a century of this abhorrent Israeli occupation will have passed”.
This time, at least, the leaders have a concrete achievement to showcase as evidence that America and its closest Mideast ally are sticking together: A 10-year military assistance deal worth $38 billion, the largest tranche of military aid the US has ever given another country.
Abbas asked, as cited by Haaretz, adding that “racial discrimination is a daily reality, Israel continues to grant permits for settlements and infrastructure in the occupied territories while preventing Palestinians from using their land”.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mr Netanyahu said Israel is prepared to revive peace talks, but rejected a freeze on Israeli settlement building, saying the issue has “always been about the existence of a Jewish state”.
Netanyahu began his address by calling the UN’s constant condemning of Israel “a disgrace” and “a moral farce”.
“I am ready to negotiate all final status issues, but one thing I will never negotiate is our right to the one and only Jewish state”, the prime minister said.
Abbas also called on the U.K.to apologize to Palestinians on the centennial anniversary of the 1917 Belfour Declaration – a controversial document that sacrificed Palestinian land for the establishment of a Jewish state.
“After further discussion with community leaders, we have made a decision to postpone Sunday’s trip as to not impact the city’s resources”, it said, adding that Clinton will visit the city on the following Sunday.
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Abbas said that Britain should recognise Palestine as a state in order to correct its past mistakes.
