Abbas tells UN it's responsible for ending Israeli 'apartheid' - https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-tells-un-its-responsible-for-ending-israeli-apartheid/
Palestinian leader says two-state solution in jeopardy; demands apology from UK over 1917 Balfour Declaration
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday told the United Nations that Israel is not a peace partner, and said its "colonial occupation" of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was breeding incitement and violence in the region.
In an address to the General Assembly, Abbas said the international community was responsible for putting an end to Israeli policies that "incite religious tensions and could lead to a violent religious conflict."
"We are entrusted and you are entrusted to end apartheid in Palestine," Abbas said in a nearly 45-minute speech." Can the world accept an apartheid regime in the 21st century?"
"Has the international community surrendered to the fact that Israel is a country above the law?" he asked. "The continuation of the occupation is a disgrace for the international community."
"There is no place left for the state of Palestine and this is not acceptable," he said.
"The two-state solution is in jeopardy," he said, warning, "We cannot as Palestinians stand still in the face of this threat."
"Our choice is the two-state solution on the 1967 borders," Abbas said, "and we will grant every chance for the efforts being undertaken by President Donald Trump and the Quartet and international community as a whole to achieve a historic agreement that brings the two-state solution to reality, enabling the state of Palestine with its capital East Jerusalem to live in peace and security side by side with Israel."
The Quartet refers to the grouping of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union guiding the Middle East peace process.
Abbas said that failing the re-establishment of talks, he would continue to seek recognition of Palestinian statehood outside the framework of a peace process - a posture Israel has rejected repeatedly as sabotaging chances for peace.
In a first for a Palestinian president since the launch of the Oslo peace process in 1993, however, Abbas also suggested that the Palestinians might, in the face of the collapse of hopes for two states, agitate for full rights in a single state.
Likening Israel's control of the West Bank to a "one-state reality," Abbas warned that in the failure of a two-state solution, "neither you, nor we, will have any other choice but to continue the struggle and demand full, equal rights for all inhabitants of historic Palestine. This is not a threat, but a warning of the realities before us as a result of ongoing Israeli policies that are gravely undermining the two-state solution."
Abbas said withdrawing the Israeli presence from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, by contrast, would be a blow to Palestinian terror groups, which continue to call for the use of violence as a strategy of resistance.
Abbas went on to urge the British government to correct the "historic injustice" it inflicted on the Palestinian people by issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917, a document that espoused London's support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The PA president criticized the United Kingdom for marking the 100th anniversary of the declaration, and demanded compensation.
Abbas also told the Assembly that Israel's refusal to recognize a state of Palestine along the 1967 lines "put into question" its commitment to the Oslo peace accords signed in 1993.
"We recognize the state of Israel on the 1967 borders, but Israel's refusal to recognize these borders has put into question the mutual recognition of the agreement signed in Oslo," he said.
Afterwards, Israel's UN ambassador slammed Abbas for his remarks, saying they "spread falsehoods" that "encourage hate."
"Today's lies and excuses have proven once again that the Palestinian leadership is a serial evader of peace," Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Abbas met with US President Donald Trump and, in a markedly more conciliatory tone than his UN General Assembly speech, expressed optimism of the US administration's efforts to broker "the deal of a century" between the Palestinians and Israel.
Abbas said the 20-plus meetings PA officials have held with US officials since Trump took office in January "gives us the assurance and the confidence that we are on the verge of real peace."
Trump, in response, told the Palestinian leader that "we have a pretty good shot - maybe the best shot ever" at achieving peace in the entire Middle East. "I certainly will devote everything within my heart and within my soul to get that deal made."
"Israel is working very hard toward the same goal, and I must tell you, Saudi Arabia and many of the different nations are working also hard," Trump told Abbas. "So we'll see if we can put it together. Who knows? Stranger things have happened."
Trump, who has made resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict one of the "highest priorities" of his presidency, failed to mention the decades-long dispute in his address to the UN a day earlier.
During his speech, Trump trashed the deal to curb Iran's nuclear program and dubbed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "rocket man" on a "suicide mission."
Also on Tuesday, Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told the Israeli leader that a regional peace deal would be a "fantastic achievement" and that "we are giving it an absolute go."
In his own remarks to the General Assembly, Netanyahu said that Israel was ready for peace with Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world. However, his commitment to the principle of "two states for two peoples," expressed last year, was absent from his speech.
Netanyahu later hailed Trump's remarks as the most "courageous speech" he had ever heard at the world body.
Hezbollah has 10,000 fighters in Syria ready to confront Israel, commander says - By Judah Ari Gross -
Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group is an army with 'infantry, rockets, tanks, elite forces,' building tunnels, military bases for future war
Hezbollah has more than 10,000 fighters in southern Syria ready to confront Israel, a commander for the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group has said.
"Hezbollah has over 10,000 fighters deployed in southern Syria. Hezbollah is an army of infantry, rockets, tanks, elite forces," the Hezbollah official told the Middle East Eye website this week, amid tensions surrounding the shooting down by the Israeli Air Force on Tuesday of an Iranian-built drone launched by the group as it attempted to cross into airspace.
The commander said the fighters were based in areas surrounding the Golan Heights and that tunnels and military bases were being built for a possible confrontation with Israel
"We are operating as we do in south Lebanon, but of course in a veiled manner," he said.
Speaking of the truce in southern Syria, under the auspices of Russia and the United Nations, the commander said that the "de-escalation plan is better for us. We are working with more freedom, there are no more bombings."
The commander said that the next war with Israel may start from Syria but "what really matters is where will it end, will it be in Netanya, Haifa or Kiryat Shmona?"
On Tuesday, Israel used a Patriot missile to shoot down the drone launched by Hezbollah and scrambled fighter jets to the area where the device was set to cross into Israeli airspace, but ultimately did not need to use them as the interceptor missile was able to destroy the target.
The Patriot interceptor missile was launched from a military installation in northern Israel, near the city of Safed.
After the drone breached the "Bravo line" that marks the Syrian border and entered the demilitarized zone - but not Israeli airspace - the IDF "decided to intercept it," army spokesperson Lt. Col. Yonatan Conricus said Tuesday.
In a statement, the IDF said it "will not allow any infiltration or approach toward the Golan Heights area by terrorist figures from Iranian forces, Hezbollah, Shiite militias or Islamic Jihad."
According to Conricus, the air force monitored the unmanned aerial vehicle from its take-off at Damascus airport to the demilitarized zone that separates the Israeli and Syrian Golan Heights.
"We monitor everything that flies toward the State of Israel and follow it closely for any potential threat," he said.
Conricus said Military Intelligence was able to identify the drone as Iranian-built and Hezbollah-launched based on the army's arrays of sensors in the area and its years of experience monitoring the group.
The spokesperson said the drone appeared to be performing reconnaissance mission in the area. It was not immediately clear if the drone was armed.
Shortly after the incident, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned that any country or terrorist group that threatens Israel will "pay a dear price, very dear."
The debris from the drone landed near the Syrian city of Quneitra so the IDF was not able to recover it, he said.
The Patriot missile system was designed by the United States to intercept incoming missiles and aircraft. It has been deployed in Israel since the 1990s, but first saw anti-aircraft combat during the 2014 Gaza war, when a battery shot down an unmanned Hamas aircraft over the port of Ashdod.
Israel has long been concerned by its nemesis Iran's ongoing efforts to establish itself in southern Syria, near the Golan Heights.
Jerusalem fears that the Iranian presence in that area would serve as a springboard for terrorist groups to attack Israel in the future.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been negotiating with his counterparts in the United States and Russia to establish an Iran-free area around surrounding the border, but to no avail yet.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers participated in the largest military drill since 1998, simulating war with Hezbollah for 10 days.
The exercise was named "Or HaDagan" after Meir Dagan, a former Mossad chief and IDF general who died last year.
Israel last fought a full-scare war with Hezbollah in 2006's Second Lebanon War, and tensions have remained high even as the northern border has remained relatively quiet since.
This exercise was touted as a chance to practice failures or military shortcomings exposed during the war.
Led by Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of between 100,000 and 150,000 short-, medium- and long-range missiles and a fighting force of some 50,000 soldiers, including reservists.
While Israeli military officers often discuss a future conflict with the terrorist group as a matter of "when, not if," the assessment of the IDF is that Hezbollah is not currently interested in renewed warfare with Israel at present, due to its active involvement in the Syrian civil war, which have caused it significant strategic problems.
Israeli Strikes Hit Weapons Depot by Damascus Airport -
Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot by Damascus airport overnight, targeting a warehouse belonging to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is allied with the Syrian government, a monitor said Friday.
"Israeli warplanes targeted with rocket fire a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah near the airport," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
There was no immediate official confirmation from either Damascus or Israel, but the Jewish state has been accused of carrying out multiple strikes in Syria, including earlier this month.
On September 7, the Syrian army said Israeli warplanes hit one of its positions near the central town of Masyaf.
The site was reportedly used by Hezbollah forces and those of Iran, another Syrian government ally.
In April, the government accused Israel of firing several missiles at a military position near Damascus airport, triggering a huge explosion.
Israel has remained quiet on the accusations, but has repeatedly warned it stands ready to take military action to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weaponry.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military fired a Patriot missile to bring down what it said was an Iranian-made drone operated by Hezbollah on a reconnaissance mission over the Golan Heights.
Israel and Syria are still technically at war, though the armistice line on the Golan Heights had remained largely quiet for decades until civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that Israel would fight to prevent an "Iranian curtain" descending on the Middle East.
"We will act to prevent Iran from establishing permanent military bases in Syria for its air, sea and ground forces," he said.
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