Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians – not us — who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them…. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he supported his colleagues’ letter, with the exception of their insisting a two-state solution is the “only” solution.
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Lauder said Tuesday that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on Israel in his address to the 71st General Assembly were a “missed opportunity”.
The AP explained that one of the driving forces behind the UN’s singular focus on Israel is the influential Organization for Islamic Cooperation, which often spearheads the push for anti-Israel resolutions.
In the worst of the injuries sustained in the renewed attacks, a 38-year-old Israeli woman is in a serious to critical condition in a Jerusalem hospital, after a terrorist stabbed her in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday.
Ayrault said several countries, including Egypt, Russia and the United States, are trying to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Two years ago, the Obama administration informed the Palestinians that it would veto a resolution to impose a timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank.
There are speculations that the president may refocus his attention after the November elections on the failed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by outlining his own parameters on a future peace deal or by supporting a UNSC resolution.
Dozens of senators – both Democrat and Republican – sent an important letter to President Obama urging him to not let the United Nations enact one-sided resolutions that are clearly anti-Israel. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were not invited. “Israel is America’s closest ally in the Middle East and has made good faith efforts to pursue peace”. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side.
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 has worked toward peace but Palestinian leaders still incite violence. Israel intercepted the drone, but it is viewed as a sign of the increasingly sophisticated equipment that Hamas militants are using.
UN Ambassador Danny Danon slammed Ban for his comments, saying the “real madness belongs to the UN”.
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Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet and the editor of the English-language blog of the Israeli National Archives.
