MIDEAST UPDATE: 9.23.16 - Abbas to UN: Make 2017 the year Israeli occupation of Palestinian land ends

Abbas to UN: Make 2017 the year Israeli occupation of Palestinian land ends - https://www.rt.com/news/360301-abbas-2017-israeli-occupation/

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said 2017 should become the year when the Israeli occupation of Palestinian comes to an end, in an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

 

"It is my hope that... there is a collective responsibility upon you to ensure that 2017 is the year of ending the occupation," Abbas said, according to The Times of Israel.

 

Abbas pledged to submit a resolution to the UN Security Council opposing "the terror of the settlers against the Palestinian people."

 

The Palestinian president criticized as "contemptuous" recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who compared dismantling settlements to "ethnic cleansings."

 

"Who is practicing ethnic cleansing?" Abbas asked, as cited by Haaretz, adding that "racial discrimination is a daily reality, Israel continues to grant permits for settlements and infrastructure in the occupied territories while preventing Palestinians from using their land."

 

The Palestinian leader also said that Britain should apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration that endorsed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The UK should also recognize Palestine as an independent state, he added.

 

"We ask Great Britain, as we approach 100 years since this infamous declaration, to draw the necessary lessons and to bear its historic, legal, political, material and moral responsibility for the consequences of this declaration, including an apology to the Palestinian people for the catastrophes, misery and injustice this declaration created and to act to rectify these disasters and remedy its consequences, including by the recognition of the state of Palestine," Abbas said, as cited by Reuters. "This is the least Great Britain can do."

 

Abbas has also urged all countries to recognize Palestine's independence and asked the international community for cooperation in settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that it "would surely constitute a unique opportunity for peace, stability and coexistence to prevail in our region and between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples."

 

The president said that there is the need for a peace conference, but that Israel is "trying to avoid" meeting.

 

He expressed hope that all UN member states would apply pressure to Israel and that the conference would take place before the end of 2016.

 

"If there is no conference and no contacts between us, how can peace be made?" Abbas asked, according to Haaretz.

 

Abbas blamed Israel for sabotaging the peace efforts made by the US over a 13-year period.

 

Netanyahu: UN's gone from 'moral force to moral farce'

 

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at the UN for constantly placing the blame on Israel, describing it as a "disgrace."

 

"It began as a moral force, but the UN has become a moral farce," the prime minister said.

 

He also said that the UN Human Rights Council is a "joke" while UNESCO is a "circus."

 

"The sooner the UN's obsession with Israel ends, the better. The better for Israel, the better for your countries, the better for the UN itself," Netanyahu said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

 

Netanyahu, who addressed the UN General Assembly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, responded to his harsh statement by saying that "the real settlements the [Palestinians] are after are Tel Aviv and Haifa."

 

Netanyahu, however, invited Abbas to "speak to the Israeli people at the Knesset in Jerusalem."

 

Israel's leader noted that the "true core of the conflict" is "the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary."

 

"It's always been about the existence of a Jewish state, a Jewish state in any boundary," Netanyahu added.

 

 

In fiery UN speech, Netanyahu invites Abbas to address Knesset - http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-fiery-un-speech-netanyahu-invites-abbas-to-speak-at-knesset/

 

PM pans Palestinian incitement, urges new talks; also slams Iran as biggest threat to world, terms Human Rights Council a 'joke'

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to speak at the Knesset and offered to speak at the PA headquarters in Ramallah to advance peace.

 

But alongside the overture at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu also delivered a scathing rebuke of the Palestinian leadership, accusing it of "poisoning the future" by inciting terror through educational and TV programs and blasting it for its refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state.

 

The prime minister insisted that peace talks should resume though direct contact, telling Abbas that he is invited to speak "to the Israeli people in the Knesset in Jerusalem" and that he "would gladly come to speak [at] the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah."

 

"You have a choice to make," Netanyahu said, still addressing Abbas, who had spoken in the plenum only minutes before. "You can continue to stoke hatred, as you did today. Or you can confront hatred and work with me to establish peace between our two nations."

 

Reiterating that he remains "committed to a vision of peace based on two states for two people," Netanyahu said that "Israel is ready to negotiate all final status issues," and that "the road to peace is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York."

 

"One thing I would never negotiate is our right to the one, only Jewish state," Netanyahu said to some sustained applause.

 

"This conflict is not about the settlements, it never was," he said in direct contradiction to Abbas's comments earlier. "It's always been about the existence of a Jewish state.

 

"If the Palestinians had said yes to a Jewish state in 1947 there would have been no war... and when they do finally say yes to a Jewish state we will be able to end this conflict once and for all," Netanyahu said.

 

The prime minister also lambasted the Palestinians over their plan to sue the British government for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which supported "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," according to its text.

 

"That's almost 100 years ago," said Netanyahu. "Talk about being stuck in the past! The Palestinians might as well sue Iran for the Cyrus declarations, or file a class action suit against Abraham, for buying land in Hebron," he added, referencing a Persian edict allowing Jews to return to Judea in 539 BCE and the Biblical patriarch.

 

"But they are not only stuck in past, they are poisoning the future," Netanyahu went on, before launching into an attack on Palestinian incitement by attempting to describe the life of a fictional "13-year-old Palestinian boy, let's call him Ali."

 

Ali, explained Netanyahu, goes through his life - at soccer practice, in school - surrounded by reminders and tributes to terrorists, after whom soccer stadiums and educational programs are named.

 

Thirteen-year-old Ali knows that if he commits a terror attack against Israelis, he will receive a Palestinian Authority salary [while in prison] and is guaranteed a job with the Palestinian government when he gets out, Netanyahu said.

 

"This is child abuse," charged the prime minister.

 

Netanyahu told the UN that unlike the Palestinians, Israel does not tolerate extremists, something that "proves the profound difference between our societies."

 

He gave the example of a deadly arson attack on the Palestinian Dawabsha family in the West Bank by suspected Jewish terrorists in July 2015, and Israel's response to it.

 

"Today, the Jewish citizens of Israel accused of killing the Dawabshas are in an Israeli jail. It proves the profound difference between our societies. While Israel jails the handful of terrorists among us, the Palestinians pay thousands of terrorists," he said.

 

In his speech, Netanyahu also blasted the Hamas terror group for refusing to return the remains of two Israeli soldiers who died fighting in Operation Protective Edge two years ago in Gaza - and whose bodies were taken by Hamas - and for rejecting talks on the return of three Israeli nationals.

 

The prime minister urged world countries to stand with the families of those affected "and will all that's decent, against the inhumanity of Hamas."

 

'Iran is still the greatest threat'

 

In his wide-ranging speech before the UNGA, Netanyahu also promised to never let Iran develop nuclear weapons - "not now, not in a decade, not ever" - generating applause.

 

Iran is the greatest threat to Israel, to the region and to the world, he said, returning to a central theme of many previous UN speeches.

 

Last year's nuclear deal with Tehran, under which it agreed to curb its atomic program in exchange for easing international sanctions, did not eliminate the threat, argued Netanyahu, charging that the "threat of Iran poses to all of us is not behind us, it's before us."

 

There "must be a sustained, united effort to push back against Iranian aggression, Iran's terror," he added.

 

Speaking on other recent regional developments, Netanyahu spoke favorably of developing ties with regional countries, promising that "in the years ahead, Israel will forge lasting peace with all our neighbors." That remark also generated enthusiastic applause.

 

Netanyahu said that world nations, notably in the Middle East, were shifting their traditional negative stances on Israel due to a changing region and the rise of common enemies, such as Iran and the Islamic State terror group.

 

"More than ever, many regional countries recognize that Israel is not their enemy but their ally," he said, adding that the "common enemy is Iran and ISIS," referring to the Islamic State.

 

"In coming years, we will work together openly," he said, adding that Israeli relations with regional countries were "undergoing nothing less than revolution."

 

"The change taking place in the Arab world offers a unique opportunity to advance peace," he added, and "Israel welcomes the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative."

 

Netanyahu also took the time to praise the United States, a day after his meeting with President Barack Obama in which he thanked him for the recent $38 billion military aid deal signed last week.

 

America, said Netanyahu, is "the most powerful and generous nation on earth."

 

"Our unbreakable bond with America transcends parties and politics," he said, likely in reference to his many public disagreements with Obama, and between the two men's administrations, over the past eight years.

 

Times at the UN are changing

 

Netanyahu began his speech at the UNGA by enthusiastically declaring that "Israel has a bright future at the UN," before launching into a scathing attack against the agency and its bodies for their alleged anti-Israel bias.

 

"Year after year, I've stood at this podium and slammed the UN for its obsessive bias against Israel and the UN deserved every scathing word," he said.

 

The UN General Assembly last year passed 20 resolutions on Israel, Netanyahu said, while only three were passed on the rest of the world.

 

"And what about the joke called the Human Rights Council?" he asked, charging that that body passes more resolution "each year against Israel than any other country in the world combined."

 

Netanyahu also slammed the recent UNESCO document eliding the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, arguing that it was like "denying the connection between the Great Wall of China and China."

 

"The UN, which had begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce," he quipped.

But, he said, things are quickly changing, and the "day is not far off when many countries will stand with Israel at the UN.

 

"Because back home, governments are changing their attitude toward Israel and that will change how nations will vote at UN on Israel," he said.

 

The prime minister attributed this unfolding change to a world desire for Israeli technology and knowledge on recycling, high-tech, agriculture, desalination and "cyber power."

 

"In a decade, an Israeli PM will actually applaud the UN," he said.

 

 

After world urges two-state solution, PM to present 'Israel's truth' to UN - By Raoul Wootliff - http://www.timesofisrael.com/after-world-urges-two-state-solution-pm-to-present-israels-truth-to-un/

 

Amid uptick in violence by Palestinian attackers, Netanyahu will address the GA on Thursday shortly after Abbas, Iran's Rouhani

 

Following numerous speeches by world leaders encouraging Israel to adopt the two-state solution, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United Nations General Assembly Thursday for his eighth speech to the annual plenary session.

 

The speech will come less than an hour after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to address the confab, amid a sharp uptick in attacks by Palestinians against IDF soldiers in recent days.

 

Also scheduled to speak before Netanyahu is Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has been a target of the Israeli leader's opprobrium in many past speeches to the world body.

 

Netanyahu is 15th on the roster of world leaders scheduled to speak in the Thursday morning session at the UN, and is expected to go up to the podium at about 12:40 p.m. New York time (7:40 p.m. in Israel). Rouhani is 12th on the list and Abbas 13th.

 

Before taking off for the UN headquarters on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he intended to urge world powers to unite in the campaign against terror.

 

"I expect from the international community a uniform standard in the war on terrorism," he said. "Today the entire international community says that there is a need to wage a determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism. And indeed, they must also support the determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism, and this moral clarity is necessary to both fight against - and defeat - terrorism."

 

The prime minister added that he would "present Israel's case, Israel's truth, Israel's justice and also Israel's heroism - the heroism of our soldiers, our police officers and our citizens, who are waging an uncompromising struggle against brutal terrorism," during his address to world leaders.

 

The prime minister's speeches to the UN assembly in the last several years dealt largely with the issue of Iran's nuclear program and trying to stymie the agreement between world powers and Iran that has, Jerusalem claimed, does little to push Tehran further from a nuclear weapon.

 

Last year he rebuked world powers for failing to challenge Iran over its threats to destroy Israel, accusing the international community of "deafening silence," as he himself stood in silence for 44 seconds, staring reproachfully at the crowd.

 

Thursday's speech comes a day after Netanyahu met with US President Barak Obama on the sidelines of the assembly, in what was likely the last encounter between the two in their current positions.

 

In their public remarks, the two displayed a jovial camaraderie with Obama only briefly mentioning peace efforts with the Palestinians and concerns over settlement building.

 

But behind closed doors, senior Obama administration officials claimed Obama was more pointed, raising "profound US concerns" that settlement-building was eroding prospects for peace. Netanyahu challenged that notion, said one official, adding that the two leaders had not "papered over" their differences.

 

In his own address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama said that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot "permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land."

 

"Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better," he added.

 

A number of other world leaders also mentioned the Israel-Palestinian conflict, warning against the rejection of the two-state solution.

 

In the opening speech of the session, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the only solution to the conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would "spell doom" for both sides.

 

On stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel "are being lowered by the day."

 

"It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness," he said, adding that West Bank settlements were "obstacles to progress."

 

"This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation," said Ban.

 

Jordan's King Abdullah warned Israel would find itself in "a sea of hatred" if it did not accept a Palestinian state.

 

"No injustice has spread more bitter fruit than the denial of a Palestinian state. I say: Peace is a conscious decision," the king said. "Israel has to embrace peace or eventually be engulfed in a sea of hatred in a region of turmoil."

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he planned to use recently strengthened ties with Israel to help encourage the peace process with the Palestinians, calling the implementation of a two-state solution an "obligation of the international community."

 

"There is a need to allow for the Palestinian people to establish an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the two-state solution," he told the UN General Assembly in New York. "It is an obligation of the international community toward the Palestinian children, if nothing else."

 

Egypt's president, veering off his written speech, urged Israel and the Palestinians to look to the "wonderful" example set by his country and the Jewish state and agree on a solution that lets them exist in peace as two neighboring states.

 

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi described the Israel-Egypt model as "a real opportunity to write a bright page in the history of our region to move towards peace."

 

Sissi said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at "the core of regional instability" and called for a settlement based on a two-state solution leading to a Palestinian state.

 

 

 

Obama at UN: Israel can't permanently occupy Palestinian land - http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Obama-at-UN-Israel-must-recognize-it-cant-permanently-occupy-Palestinian-land-468236

 

US President Barack Obama, speaking before the UN General Assembly in New York for the last time, briefly addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Tuesday.

 

"Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize Israel's right to exist," Obama said during a 15-minute speech that covered a wide array of topics.

 

He added, however, that Israel must "recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land."

 

Obama opened his speech highlighting his accomplishments during his eight years as president, yet noted that "fault lines" still existed throughout the world.

 

"The world is by many measures less violent and more prosperous than ever before," he told the assembly, adding democratic countries throughout the world have doubled in the last 25 years.

 

The US president warned, however, that injustice and intolerance is encroaching on human freedoms, citing the Middle East as a hotbed of turmoil.

 

We must reject the idea of "ethnic superiority" and embrace universal human dignity, Obama told the assembly,  adding that If we discriminate on the basis of ethnicity or religion, then humanity will be harmed.

 

All parties must recognize a common humanity, he stated. Without this,"the embers of extremism will continue to burn," he said.

 

Opening the gathering of world leaders Tuesday was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his initial remarks.

 

"As a friend of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, it pains me that this past decade has been ten years lost to peace," Ban said. "Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness. This is madness."

 

In response, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, released a statement, slamming the Secretary-General and said that "the real madness belongs to the UN."

 

"Instead of focusing on Palestinian terror and incitement, and instead of compelling (Palestinain Authority President) Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table, the Secretary-General chose to criticize Israel once again," he continued. "This is an obsession with Israel and it must end."

 

"At a time when Palestinian terror is on the rise in Israel, the Secretary General chose to criticize us and ignore the direct responsibility of Abbas and the Palestinian leadership who continue to incite towards terror."

 

Danon has called out the Secretary General multiple times over his first year at the UN for statements directed against Israel.

UN chief: One-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian conflict would 'spell doom' - http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-one-state-solution-for-israeli-palestinian-conflict-would-spell-doom/

 

In last address as secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon criticizes 'illegal settlement expansion,' and 'growing polarization and hopelessness'; Danon slams 'UN obsession with Israel'

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would "spell doom" for both sides.

 

Speaking at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York for the final time as UN chief, Ban gave a wide-ranging address focused largely on the Syrian civil war, which has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people since March 2011.

 

On stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel "are being lowered by the day."

 

"It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness," he said, adding that West Bank settlements were "obstacles to progress."

 

"This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation," said Ban.

 

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized some of Ban's comments, charging that "the real madness is of the UN's."

 

"Instead of slamming the incitement and the terror [on the part of Palestinians], instead of bringing [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to the negotiating table, the secretary general has chosen once again to attack Israel," he said in a statement, adding that this is a "crazy obsession regarding Israel and it must stop."

 

"At a time when Palestinian terror has returned to Israeli streets, the secretary-general has chosen to attack Israel and not the terrorism and has ignored the direct responsibility of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and the Palestinian leadership who continue to incite terror," Danon added.

 

At least six Israelis were injured in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks over the past week, one of them seriously.

 

The UN chief opened his address with a call to end the Syrian civil war. Railing against "powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine," Ban said such countries "also have blood on their hands," urging "all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started."

 

"Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians," he said, adding that "many groups have killed innocent civilians - none more so than the government of Syria."

 

In his address, Ban denounced the "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack" on an aid convoy in Aleppo province on Monday and confirmed that the United Nations had suspended deliveries of humanitarian assistance.

 

"Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower," he added.

 

The UN chief hailed the aid workers on the convoy as "heroes" and said "those who bombed them were cowards" before calling for accountability for crimes committed in the war.

 

Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near the northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed "around 20 civilians" including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent. Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country - dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived.

 

Ban blamed all sides for killing innocent people, but "none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees."

 

The former South Korean foreign minister is stepping down as UN secretary-general on December 31 after 10 years.

 

 

Critical Year for Israel as UN Bias Expected to Continue - http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=665

 

As the United Nations begins it's 71st General Assembly in New York City, Israel is preparing itself for another round of attacks. There is no other nation on Earth as vilified in the United Nations as Israel. 

 

Many fear the Security Council this year will push through a resolution setting territorial parameters, and a deadline, for the creation of a Palestinian state.

 

President Obama has hinted that in the final months of his term, he may reverse the traditional U.S. policy of vetoing such resolutions. Some have even suggested the recent military aid deal formalized by the United States and Israel is part of that plan by using a carrot and stick mentality.  

 

The US has given Israel the military assistance carrot but will now allow the stick to fall at the UN by not protecting it from a hostile world body. 

 

In the meetings and resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly, UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Labor Organization (ILO), and the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel has been singled out as a target time and time again. 

 

Year after year, these groups and the UN General Assembly focus their attention on condemning Israel while ignoring to an absurd degree perpetrators of tyranny, discrimination, and human rights all over the world. 

 

A cursory view of the record of the UN's resolutions should give an idea of the level of bias present in this otherwise esteemed international body.

 

The United Nations Human Rights Council

 

Led in recent years by none other than Saudi Arabia, one of the world's worst offenders in both religious oppression and the subjugation of women, the Human Rights Council has adopted 131 resolutions intended to criticize specific countries. 

 

Of those 131, an incredible 68 were leveled against Israel alone. From its 47 rotating member states, the council has directed 55% of its resolutions against Israel in 2016, 36% in 2015, 43% in 2014 and 40% in 2013. 

 

Absent from the discussion, strangely enough, is criticism of Saudi Arabia's treatment of women and religious minorities.

 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

 

The sole focus on country-specific resolutions from UNESCO, approximately 10 per year, has been Israel. The resolutions range from the absurd conspiracy theory put forth in 2016 that Israel is "planting fake Jewish graves" in Jerusalem (Arab-sponsored and voted on by both France and Spain) to dozens of other pronouncements on the illegality of Jewish cultural sites and condemnation of Israel's educational system. 

 

With Syria in 2013 as the one exception, no other nation has yet been the focus of a country-specific resolution by UNESCO.

 

The World Health Organization

 

The WHO is focused primarily on health issues on a global scale, but an exception is made for its annual resolution that bears the name "Health Conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem and in the Occupied Syrian Golan" which once again focuses only on Israel as the target of its condemnation. 

 

No other country suffers this fate. UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer described a recent resolution as "reaching new heights of absurdity," when the body, "accused Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, even as, in reality, Israeli hospitals continue their life saving treatment of Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime's barbaric attacks."

 

The International Labor Organization

 

The ILA's mission is to improve labor conditions, reduce unemployment and protect workers worldwide. It pretends to do this by, once again, producing only a single country-specific report each year condemning only Israel. 

 

With global problems of wage inequality in China, forced labor in Dubai, sweatshops in Burma and cruel working conditions in Bangladesh, this exclusive focus on Israel is as bizarre as it is counterproductive.

 

The United Nations General Assembly

 

The General Assembly has among the worst track records of bias. Between 2012 and 2015, it adopted 97 resolutions aimed at criticism of specific countries. Of those, 83 (86%) were direct only towards Israel. 

 

Largely ignoring the massacres committed by Assad's regime and dozens of other despots around the world, year after year Israel is singled out in what amounts to a pogrom, thinly veiled as global democracy, against the state of Israel which is, ironically, the only democracy in the Middle East!

 

The UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2016 blamed the "Israeli occupation" for the subjugation of women in Palestinian society. Of all 193 countries, only Israel was singled out for criticism, despite the plight of women in many Arab states where their rights are virtually nonexistent and abuse is common, or in India where sexual violence is running rampant. 

 

Israel is blamed for the fact that 51% of Palestinian women have been the victims of gender violence. Israel is blamed for Palestinian families who force their daughters into marriage for money. Israel is blamed for the condition of the Palestinian healthcare system. 

 

So they would have us conclude that Israel is responsible for Palestinian men beating women, for Palestinian marriage practices and for the Palestinian healthcare system.

 

An international body that claims to be democratic has shown itself to be little more than a mob whose sole target is most often Israel. Like the age old accusations of Jews poisoning wells, Israel is year after year singled out to take the blame and condemnation of the world's problems. 

 

Whether health, education, employment, gender or human rights, an unending series of resolutions is passed against Israel while the world's despots vote to shift the blame away from themselves. 

 

The UN is far from the objective and enlightened bastion of global democracy and modernity many believe it to be and its record on Israel is shameful to say the least.

 

 

Obama, Keen to Push Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Will Meet with Netanyahu - By Mark Landler and Peter Bakersept - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/19/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-obama-israel-palestinians.html?_r=1

 

President Obama arrived in New York City on Sunday evening for three days that will mix election-year politics with a farewell to the world stage at the United Nations. But the visit comes against a suddenly tense backdrop, after a powerful explosion rocked a Manhattan street and a man claiming fealty to the Islamic State stabbed several people in a Minnesota shopping mall.

 

The president's diplomatic schedule also got more complicated. The White House announced Sunday that he would hold meetings at the United Nations with leaders from Israel and China. Both will be closely watched for signs of friction in relationships that have been marked by tension during Mr. Obama's tenure.

 

On Wednesday, he is scheduled to confer with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at a time when he is weighing whether to propose his own framework for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians over Mr. Netanyahu's objections. The two leaders have clashed repeatedly over the Iran nuclear agreement and Mr. Obama's pursuit of Middle East peace.

 

The meeting could be their last face-to-face encounter before Mr. Obama's term ends in January. Last week, the United States and Israel sealed a $38 billion, 10-year American security aid package to Israel, the largest ever granted to an ally. Officials in both countries have characterized the deal as proof that the American-Israeli relationship is enduring, whatever the strains between the two men.

 

On Monday, Mr. Obama is scheduled to have a brief session with China's premier, Li Keqiang, a week after North Korea tested another nuclear device. The president is expected to press Mr. Li to use China's influence to discipline the North, something the Chinese have resisted for fear of destabilizing an impoverished neighbor.

 

Mr. Obama returned recently from a trip to Hangzhou, China, which was marred by a messy arrival at the airport that led to shouting matches between American and Chinese officials. Administration officials played down the significance of the episode, saying Mr. Obama's talks with President Xi Jinping were not affected.

 

This will be Mr. Obama's last appearance at the United Nations, and his aides said he would use it to recall his diplomatic achievements and argue that his multilateral approach is a model for dealing with future crises. But the still-unexplained bombing in New York and the stabbings in Minnesota, which the F.B.I. is treating as a "potential act of terrorism," guarantee that security will be at the forefront.

 

So will presidential politics. Mr. Obama arrived in New York a day earlier than usual so he could attend a fund-raiser in Manhattan for his preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton. Mr. Obama's motorcade crossed Manhattan on 23rd Street, the site of Saturday's explosion, though several blocks to the east, before arriving at Gramercy Park.

 

Mr. Obama spoke to 65 people at the apartment of the restaurateur Danny Meyer. The guests paid $25,000 each to attend, while the chairmen raised or contributed $250,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint organization of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee that raises money for Democrats up and down the ballot.

 

Mr. Obama said that despite the gulf in qualifications between Mrs. Clinton and the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, the election was likely to be close because of what he called the "structural" polarization of American society. And he spoke more starkly than he had before about the role gender is playing in the race.

 

"There's a reason why we haven't had a woman president," Mr. Obama said. "We as a society still grapple with what it means to see powerful women. And it still troubles us in a lot of ways, unfairly."

 

Mrs. Clinton has her own schedule of meetings at the United Nations, including with the presidents of Egypt and Ukraine and the prime minister of Japan. It was not clear whether she planned to meet with Mr. Netanyahu, a leader with whom she had her own clashes while secretary of state.

 

On Sunday, Mr. Obama made clear that now that he had demonstrated a commitment to Israel's security, he planned to press Mr. Netanyahu to move toward reconciliation with the Palestinians.

 

"The meeting also will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground," Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.

 

Left unclear was whether Mr. Obama would go beyond simply urging Mr. Netanyahu. The president is considering whether to publicly lay out his own parameters for a settlement of the long-running conflict, a prospect Mr. Netanyahu has strongly opposed.

 

The president's speech to the General Assembly would be a logical place for such a move, though his advisers say he might wait until after the November election to avoid its becoming part of campaign politics. If he proceeds, he could give a speech outlining his ideas or even encapsulate them in a resolution before the United Nations Security Council.

 

Aides to Mr. Obama say he has played his cards very close to his chest, not discussing his plans outside a tiny circle.

 

 

 

A Palestinian State Cometh: UN Secretary-General Calls for Imminent Action to Save The 'Two State Solution' - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/a-palestinian-state-cometh-un-secretary-general-calls-for-imminent-action-to-save-the-two-state-solution

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has harshly criticized Israeli settlements in the West Bank and is calling for urgent action to save "the two state solution". He insists that Israeli settlements in the West Bank "are illegal under international law" and he told reporters that the "occupation" of Palestinian-controlled territories "must end". These comments represent perhaps the strongest statements that any UN Secretary-General has ever made against Israel, and they come at a very ominous time. As I detailed just a few days ago, there is a major push to try to get some sort of UN Security Council resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Barack Obama leaves office. As you will see below, this is something that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon obviously endorses.

 

Those that are hoping for a "two state solution" know that fresh negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are not likely to happen any time in the near future. So if the "peace process" is going to move forward, it is going to have to happen at the United Nations.

 

Ban Ki-moon is among those that are desperate to try to save the "two state solution", and as the UN begins a new annual session this week he is urging imminent action. The following comes from the official UN website...

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for intensified efforts to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to take the difficult steps required to change the current destructive trajectory of the conflict, which is heading towards a "one-state reality" rather than a peaceful resolution.

 

"Twenty-three years ago, almost to the day, the first Oslo Accord was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization," the Secretary-General told the Security Council in a briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

 

"Unfortunately, we are further than ever from its goals. The two-state solution is at risk of being replaced by a one-state reality of perpetual violence and occupation," he warned.

 

Using the term "occupation" clearly shows which side of the fence Ban Ki-moon is on, and he went on to declare that the "occupation" of the West Bank by Israel "must end"...

 

Turning to Israel's settlement activities, Mr. Ban said that in the past two weeks alone, plans were advanced for yet another 463 housing units in four settlements in Area C of the West Bank. Official Israeli data shows that the second quarter of 2016 had the highest number of construction starts in three years.

 

"The decades-long policy that has settled more than 500,000 Israelis in Palestinian territory is diametrically opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state," he said.

 

"Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end," he said.

 

Those that have followed Ban Ki-moon's career know that he is a relatively soft-spoken guy.

 

To make these kinds of incendiary comments is basically his version of shouting from the rooftops. He appears to be obsessed with getting something done to formally establish a Palestinian state, and he knows that he realistically only has until January 20th, 2017 to accomplish his goal.

 

As I mentioned above, a new UN annual session begins this week, and many are concerned that a UN Security Council resolution that sets the parameters for a Palestinian state will be on the agenda. The following is from a Wall Street Journal article that was published just a couple of days ago...

 

The United Nations began its annual session this week, and Israel will be prominent on the agenda. Many fear the Security Council may consider a resolution setting definite territorial parameters, and a deadline, for the creation of a Palestinian state. President Obama has hinted that in the final months of his term, he may reverse the traditional U.S. policy of vetoing such resolutions. The General Assembly, meanwhile, is likely to act as the chorus in this drama, reciting its yearly litany of resolutions criticizing Israel.

 

If such a UN Security Council resolution gets passed, it will be far more important than the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November. Recently I had the opportunity to explain why this is the case on one of the biggest Christian television shows in America...

 

WATCH: https://youtu.be/qJx2vqeQPeg

 

Unfortunately, when I do articles like this they tend to get a less attention than many of my other articles typically do.

 

The truth is that most Americans simply don't understand the importance of what is going on in the Middle East.

 

In fact, one recent survey discovered that less than a third of all U.S. Millennials can find Israel on a map of the world...

 

Less than one-third of US-educated millennials are able to identify Israel on a map, a new survey has found.

 

According to the joint study - titled "What College-Aged Students Know About the World: A Survey on Global Literacy" - conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and National Geographic, a mere 31 percent of respondents knew the location of Israel on a map of the Middle East.

 

Can you believe that?

 

How can our young people go to school year after year after year and not be able to point to Israel on a world map?

 

That is inexcusable, and it is yet another example of how our system of education has become a complete and utter disgrace.

 

And I was shocked to learn that UC Berkeley was actually going to have a college course about how to remove Jewish "colonialists" from "the land of Palestine". The following comes from the Jerusalem Post...

 

This week I learned that beginning this year, the prestigious UC Berkeley will be offering a course on "settler colonialism" in Israel, meaning Jews as colonialists.* "Drawing upon literature on decolonization, [the course] will explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine." In other words, let's talk about how to eradicate Israel altogether. But not only the course facilitator will explore these possibilities, students will be required to "research, formulate, and present decolonial alternatives to the current situation."

 

After criticism from the Jewish community, that course was canceled by UC Berkeley, but it still shows how anti-Semitism is on the rise in America.

 

All over the country, the tiny nation of Israel provokes extremely strong emotional reactions. Most people either really love the Jewish people or they really hate them.

 

And as the drama in the Middle East continues to unfold, support for Israel is going to become a major, major political issue in this nation.

 

But the very next thing that we are watching for is a UN Security Council resolution formally establishing a Palestinian state and granting them East Jerusalem as their capital.

 

Now that a new UN annual session has started, we are officially in the danger zone, and we will remain in the danger zone until the next president is inaugurated on January 20th, 2017.

 

Let us hope that nothing happens between now and then, because such a resolution would be one of the worst things that Barack Obama could possibly do.