This year’s UN General Assembly did not bring much new regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech, while generally more upbeat than his previous appearances, did not stray far from his normal positions and tone on the issue, and remarks by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas did not hold many surprises either. Once again, both were trying to balance a tough image that appeals to their respective publics while simultaneously confessing a desire for peace and blaming the other side for failure to reach it. But one aspect of Abbas’s speech, though not new, is being touted by Palestinian officials as the start of a diplomatic initiative — namely his assertion that he will “continue to exert all efforts for a Security Council resolution on the settlements and the terror of the settlers.”

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