“‘Oom-shmoom’ said the Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, speaking about the UN in the 1950s. (Oom is the Hebrew abbreviation for United Nations.) Using more diplomatic language appropriate to a US Secretary of State, Susan Rice said much the same thing yesterday after the UNGA voted to upgrade the status of Palestine to a non-member observer state:

‘There simply are no short cuts. Long after the votes have been cast, it is the Palestinians and the Israelis who must still talk to each other – and listen to each other – and find a way to live side by side in the land they share.’

‘The prospects of a durable peace,’ an angry Rice pointed out, ‘have only receded.’ Not least because of the unhinged and hate-filled speech made by Palestinian President Abbas from the UN podium. He began with libel, accusing Israel of being a ‘racist state’ engaged in ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ended with incitement, appealing to the UN to ‘prevent the occurrence of a new Nakba in the Holy Land!’

Read more…