From the Israeli Prime Minister’s statement this morning at the Menachim Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem:
“Israel is prepared to live in peace with a Palestinian state, but for peace to endure, Israel’s security must be protected. The Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state and they must be prepared to end the conflict with Israel once and for all. None of these vital interests, these vital interests of peace, none of them appear in the resolution that will be put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel cannot accept it. The only way to achieve peace is through agreements that are reached by the parties directly; through valid negotiations between themselves, and not through UN resolutions that completely ignore Israel’s vital security and national interests. And because this resolution is so one-sided, it doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards.
As for the rights of the Jewish people in this land, I have a simple message for those people gathered in the General Assembly today: No decision by the UN can break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.”
The UN General Assembly vote will take place later today, and it’s expected to pass. As Jonathan noted yesterday, the Israeli government is downplaying the impact of it, and Netanyahu has continued to do so with his statement this morning. Still, the vote will give Palestinians more power to use the already anti-Israel UN as a global PR weapon against the Jewish state, including the ability to bring war charges against it in the International Criminal Court.
Why should Israel care about charges in the ICC, a completely illegitimate body that no right-minded person takes seriously? Israel is right to downplay the UN vote – that should have been their approach all along.
Because all the world's NGOs and the EU-bought-and-paid-for Israeli 5th columnists will now gather all sorts of fraudulent info on anyone who has served in the IDF to drag them through the ICC if they step out of Israel.
Fine, fine words by Bibi. So stirring, I swear I could hear strains of Hatikva in the background. n nA tad too late to raise the fist of heroic defiance, though, after allowing the killers to return from Tunisia, not flattening the Muqata and frying Arafat's behind after the first terror act, treating terrorists as a "government," employing the killers, feeding and healing them, signing on to the Oslo suicide pact and doing doodly-doo as they lobbed missiles for o-so-many years. Oops.
Exactly right. n nBut hey, they knew better. It was more important to take their cue from American Presidents, because America always stands by its word and its allies, right?
Remember that it was a Democ-rat president, William Jefferson Clinton, who approved of the ICC and it's only Democ-rat senators who want to bring it up for approval. It's a dastardly proposal.