Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations refugee summit in NY on Monday night, Mr Ayrault said: “This week must be a moment of political mobilisation that we can reach that goal.”His comments came less than two weeks after the Russian Foreign Ministry said Palestinian and Israeli leaders had agreed “in principle” to peace talks in Moscow”. “Even well-intentioned initiatives at the United Nations risk locking the parties into positions that will make it more hard to return to the negotiation table and make the compromises necessary for peace”. “This matter is an internal one for Israel to decide, and it is not the place of the United States – or the United Nations – to impose a solution on a sovereign nation”.
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But the senators implored Obama to continue longstanding USA policy and make it known publicly that he will veto any “one-sided UNSC resolution that may be offered in the coming months”.
Israel was not the only nation critiqued by Obama.
Similarly, in his 2011 speech to the UN General Assembly, Obama said: “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations – if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now”.
“The only way to resolve the conflicts between the two is through direct negotiations”. He said both sides are to blame – the Palestinians for inciting hostility, and Israel for occupying Palestinian land.
Those posts were exposed last November, just prior to Netanyahu’s last meeting with the USA president. On Tuesday, a Palestinian man tried to stab a soldier outside of Hebron but was shot before he could do so, and two soldiers were injured by rioters in a refugee camp, where they were carrying out a raid.
US President Barack Obama has addressed issues in the Middle East, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, and issues in the South China Sea, during his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
“I join all of our colleagues in praying for peace and security for our great ally Israel”. However, Israel does not now have a viable partner for peace. The Palestinian and Israeli leaders were not part of the invite.
Both Rubio and Cruz have close ties with GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who has been funding a right-wing competitor to the bipartisan AIPAC, the Israeli American Council.
Finally, Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, a Yale PhD and former university president who has emerged as one of the right’s leading anti-Trump voices in Congress, also did not sign out of concern that the letter did not draw a sufficient contrast between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel intercepted the drone, but it is viewed as a sign of the increasingly sophisticated equipment that Hamas militants are using.
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While the focus of the letter was on preventing “one-sided” resolutions, the signatories signaled their lack of enthusiasm for any USA – or United Nations -led initiatives at this point.
