UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Hussian Obama Wednesday that there
could be no short cut to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as
he sought to head off a looming diplomatic crisis for the Middle East
and U.S. policy there.
Addressing the United Nations General
Assembly, Obama said peace will not come through statements and
resolutions at the U.N. if it were that easy, it would have been
accomplished by now. “Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians who
must live side by side. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians not
us who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them,” he added.
But
in the speech before the U.N. General Assembly, he stopped short of
directly calling on the Palestinians to drop their plan to seek
statehood recognition from the U.N. Security Council. U.S. officials
were working feverishly behind the scenes to persuade the Palestinians.
With the limits of U.S. influence on the moribund peace process never
more clearly, Obama had no new demands for the Israelis either except
saying that both sides deserved their own state and security.
"Peace
depends upon compromise among peoples who must live together long after
our speeches are over, and our votes have been counted," Obama said.
"That is the path to a Palestinian state."
The push by the
Palestinians threatens to isolate Israel even further, and divide the
U.S. from allies in the Arab world who support the statehood
resolution. Obama was to follow up his speech with separate meetings
with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as he seeks to coax both parties
back to direct peace talks.
"Despite extensive efforts by
America and others, the parties have not bridged their differences. But
what I also said is that genuine peace can only be realized between
Israelis and Palestinians themselves” Obama added. A year on, he said,
despite extensive efforts, the parties remained at a stalemate.
"That
is the lesson of Northern Ireland, where ancient antagonists bridged
their differences. That is the lesson of Sudan, where a negotiated
settlement led to an independent state. And that is the path to a
Palestinian state."
The President continued: "We seek a future
where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no
limit to what they can achieve. There is no question that the
Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long."
However,
he declared America’s commitment to Israel’s security "unshakeable",
and the friendship between the two countries to be "deep and enduring".
For last reason, he said, America believes that any lasting peace must
acknowledge Israel’s real security concerns.
"Israel’s citizens
have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on
their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the
region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country
of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders
of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map”, he said. Online
