‘Let’s Negotiate Peace’: Netanyahu Challenges Abbas During U.N. Speech

Sep 23, 2011 1 Comment ›› Angelia

ABC:

An hour after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly to a rousing ovation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a more measured response.

“The Palestinians should first make peace and then declare their state,” he said today in response to Abbas’ bid for U.N. statehood. “Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state but we are not willing to have another Gaza.”

During his speech, Netanyahu challenged Abbas to resume peace talks today in New York.

“We are in the same city. We are in the same building,” he said. “If we want peace, what’s there to stop us?”

That challenge to the Palestinian leader came at the end of a speech in which Netanyahu pointed to militant Islam and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as the principal reason for holding back peace. He referred to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech Thursday in which he claimed that 9/11 was a conspiracy.

“Some of you left this hall,” Netanyahu said today. “All of you should have. Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday armed with nuclear weapons? … If that man is not stopped, the Arab Spring could become an Iranian winter.”

Netanyahu said the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was initially applauded by the world as a bold step. He pointed out that Israel had dismantled settlements, retreated to the 1967 borders and bulldozed synagogues.

Netanyahu to U.N.: ‘We Didn’t Get Peace. We Got War’

“The theory says it should all work out,” he said. “But we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas kicked out the Palestinian Authority. … When Israel left Gaza … the moderates were devoured by radicals.”

Netanyahu said he could not risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking.

“The world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous,” he said today.

He said there were major life-and-death security concerns that “have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared.”

“Give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with Palestinians,” he said directly to Abbas, imploring Palestinians to first recognize Israel.

“The core of the conflict is not the settlements, the core of the conflict is their refusal to accept a Jewish state,” he said.

Netanyahu said if that was done, Israel would be prepared to take some painful steps.

“I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner for peace. We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations,” he said. “Let’s just get on with it.”

Mahmoud Abbas Takes U.N. Stage

Before Netanyahu, Abbas took the U.N. stage today in front of the General Assembly to request that leaders accept them as a member state despite U.S. and Israeli opposition.

He quickly pointed out speeches made last year most notably by President Obama and other leaders during the last General Assembly who had hoped the stalled Middle East peace process would resume.

“But all of the sincere efforts and other parties were smashed against a rock by the Israeli government,” Abbas said.

He pointed to settlement construction as the embodiment of colonial occupation and racial discrimination. “It is the primary cause of the failure of the peace process,” he said, adding that Israeli settlements threaten the very efficacy of the Palestinian government.

Abbas said that he sought international recognition of Palestinians with East Jerusalem as the capital under the June 4, 1967 borders.

“It is no longer possible nor practical nor acceptable to return to conduct business as usual as if everything is fine,” he said.

After repeatedly criticizing Israel throughout his speech, Abbas said: “We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people. Let us urgently build a future for our children.”