Bibi is rushing to New York to speak personally to the UN General Assembly. So far he has been totally outfoxed by the Palestinian Authority, and Mr Abbas prsonally has shown real leadership which has been much appreciated by the majority of the Palestinians. Even Hamas have been left out in the cold and marginalised. Israel must adopt a completely new strategy to avoid an even bigger public relations disaster than she has faced in the last few months because of inept handling of Foreign relations by Avigdor Lieberman. Now is the time when Israel desperately needs good friends but they are not there. This is not because of bias by e.g. the BBC or because of latent or overt antisemitism. It is because the world has waited with bated breath for 44 years for some sign that Israel can actually rise to the prospect of sealing a peace deal with the Palestinians and hence the rest of her neighbours in the Middle East.
Instead everyone has seen the truth which is that Israel wants to keep ALL of the land west of the Jordan River and has only paid lip service to requests from the US and the Quartet to accede to the Two State solution. The true colours came out in the last few days when Israel bluntly threatened to annexe parts of the West Bank which Israeli settlers have occupied for the last 30+ years despite the whole world including the US insisting this is illegal. This threat is blackmail pure and simple, but the Palestinian response is that they have nothing to lose. Unfortunately for Bibi he is going to get a cold reception in the UN despite grandstanding to the US Republican Party and the right wing Jewish groups in the US and his own coalition back home. It no longer cuts any ice and Mr Obama is right to hold him in contempt for failing completely to offer meaningful prospects of peace to his neighbours.
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