Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly, extended an invitation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to directly address the Israeli public at the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, the Knesset, while proposing that he himself will visit the West Bank city of Ramallah to address the Palestinian people. The Israeli Prime Minister addressed the 71st General Assembly just one hours after the Palestinian President, said he was ready to resume negotiations on a two state solution, while stressing it was time for the Arab world to advance in dialogue with the Jewish state, to advance a broader peace.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Israel is ready, I am ready, to negotiate all final status issues, but one thing I will never negotiate — our right to the one and only Jewish State.” / “I believe as never before that changes taking place in the Arab world today offer a unique opportunity to advance that peace. I commend President el-Sisi of Egypt for his efforts to advance peace and stability in our region. Israel welcomes the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative and welcomes a dialogue with Arab states to advance a broader peace. I believe for that broader peace to be fully achieved, the Palestinians have to be a part of it. I’m ready to begin negotiations to achieve this today, not tomorrow, not next week, today. But as President Abbas spoke here an hour ago, wouldn’t it be better that instead of speaking past each other, we were speaking to one another? President Abbas, instead of railing against Israel at the United Nations in New York, I invite you to speak to the Israeli people at the Knesset in Jerusalem, and I would gladly come to the Palestinian Parliament in Ramallah,” said Bibi.
Palestinian officials rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s invitation to President Abbas to address the Knesset, saying it was not a serious invitation and was strictly PR driven. A leadership member of the Palestinian leaders’ Fatah faction, Nabil Sha’ath, stressed there were many things besides speeches in parliamentary halls that the prime minister could do to persuade the Palestinians that he genuinely wanted peace, including the attendance of peace negotiations in Paris or Moscow. The comments by Sha’ath echoed those of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Israel during his address to the General Assembly, of continued attempts to evade an international conference for peace, which has been proposed by France and which has received the support of the majority of the world’s countries.
“Israel today also continues its attempts to evade an international conference for peace, which has been proposed by France and which has received the support of the majority of the world’s countries. In June of this year a ministerial meeting was held in Paris to prepare for this conference, it was attended by 28 countries, along with three inter-governmental organizations. It remains our hope that such a conference will lead to the establishment of a mechanism and defined timeframe for an end to the occupation in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the international community, the principle for land for peace, the Arab Peace Initiative which calls, inter alia, for a just and agreed solution for the Palestinian refugees in accordance with (UN) resolution 194. We hope that all states of the world will support the convening of this international peace conference before the end of this year. If there will be no international peace conference and no direct negotiations between us and the Israelis, then how can peace be made? No peace conference, and no negotiations, how can we speak about peace, how can we make peace?” wondered Abbas.
Despite the statements by both leaders, however, the mutual recriminations in the speeches underlined the low expectations for any revival of the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.