The New York Times, pretending to be even-handed as ever, writes:
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders gave diametrically different appraisals of their protracted conflict on Thursday, with speeches at the United Nations General Assembly that suggested the dispute is more intractable than ever.
But it doesn't point out the biggest difference between the two speeches: Netanyahu's was truthful and Abbas' was full of his usual lies.
So, a brief fisking of Abbas' speech (as written, not as delivered,), that the media refuse to do because it would make him look bad:
I have come to ask for the freedom, independence and justice of my oppressed people, who have been under the yoke of the Israeli occupation for 51 years.You could have had freedom if you had accepted any of a number of peace plans.
I return to you today. This colonial occupation continues to undermine our efforts to build the institutions of our future State.Funny - Jews managed to build the institutions of their future state under British rule, with British soldiers right outside the door. Israeli soldiers aren't in Ramallah.
We note, ladies and gentlemen, that Israeli settlers and even the Israeli army every day trample the sanctity of our holy sites, especially the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Resurrection.I am not aware of any Jews hanging around any churches - since they are not built on Jewish holy spots. To say that no Jew can visit a Jewish holy spot that pre-dates the Muslim claim to it by a thousand years, and to claim that such a visit is "trampling its sanctity," is nothing short of antisemitism.
In July, Israel issued a racist law that went beyond all the red lines, which it called the "National Law of the Jewish People", negating the relationship of the Palestinian people to its historic homeland and ignoring its right to self-determination in its state, its historical narrative and the UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue.It didn't. Perhaps it should have.
This law also discriminates against Arab citizens of Israel when it grants the right to self-determination in the State of Israel exclusively to Jews. Discrimination against these Arab citizens, who represent 20% of the population of Israel, as well as against non-Jews who have immigrated to Israel.But Abbas does not believe Jews have the right to self-determination anywhere on the planet, since he denies there are a Jewish people to begin with. And his own constitution says Palestine is an Arab and Muslim state. But, who is asking for consistency from a liar?
We have dealt with the various initiatives of the international community to achieve peace between us and the Israelis, including the Arab peace initiative adopted in Security Council resolution 1515.UNSC 1515 does not mention the Arab Peace Initiative. It mentions the Roadmap, which mentioned and welcomed the Arab Peace Initiative but did not endorse it as the basis of a peace plan.
I challenge the idea that we were once asked to sit at the negotiating table and refused.That's a joke, right?
Peace in our region can not be achieved without the embodiment of the independence of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with all its holy sites.Abbas is explicitly saying that every Jewish holy site is really Muslim and the Jew-hating Arabs should be responsible for them, to allow Jews or ban Jews as they wish. He is saying that without that there will be war and terror. This is a threat.
Yet he is called a peacemaker.
We will reject and reject the use of violence and force. We will reject all kinds of weapons and we will not accept the use of weapons anywhere else.But when his people kill Jews with guns or bombs or rockets or knives, the murderers are heroes who get paid and who get buildings named after them. Wink, wink.
There is no people on this planet that does not enjoy the rights of self-determination. No? We are 13 million Palestinians in the world, why not give the right to self-determination? This is not against anyone, to build our independent state and to live side by side with the State of Israel.But he does not say that he wants 13 million Palestinians to live in "Palestine." He wants them to move to Israel to destroy the Jewish state. Here is a video from the official PA news agency just this month:
As always, Palestinian leaders don't want to build a state for their people. They want to destroy Israel by any means available, and if the military option isn't there, they will choose political or terror or "return" or subverting international law.
There are agreements between us and Israel, from the Oslo Agreement to the Paris Agreement, all of which were overturned by Israel, and we call on Israel to reverse its breach of these agreements, or we will never abide by these agreements.Oslo is what created the PA. Abbas is still president of the PA. Exactly how has this been abrogated?
Oslo also included the pledge by the PLO to abandon terror. Yet the PLO was behind the terror spree of the second Intifada, eight years later. Who abrogated the agreement?
Greetings to our noble martyrs and brave families, and to say to all the Palestinians: First, Israel considers these criminals, why? Why are there thousands of people who attack people and regard them as heroes? Why was Rabin's killer considered a hero and our prisoners are considered criminals? Greetings to our heroic martyrs and our heroic families, and I say to all that we are on a date soon with the dawn of freedom and independence and the darkness of the occupation to the end, God willing.Abbas' praise of terrorists ended his speech - and the UN applauded.
That's really all you need to know.