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Two Speeches and a Resolution

Abbas, Netanyahu address U.N. after membership bid submitted

by
Marc Tracy
September 23, 2011
President Abbas hands his resolution to Secretary-General Ban.(United Nations)
President Abbas hands his resolution to Secretary-General Ban.(United Nations)

A little before noon, President Abbas formally submitted his resolution for full recognition of the Palestinians to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will in turn submit it to the Security Council. Then, Abbas made a speech to the General Assembly, which you can read here. A couple hours later, and Prime Minister Netanyahu also addressed the assembly; you can read his remarks here. At this point it feels exhausting to rehash them. How you feel about each will more than anything else reflect how you feel about the two causes and the two men. (My quick take: Abbas is openly dishonest where Netanyahu is more subtly disingenuous; both played primarily to the folks back home, only the difference is that Abbas has far less credibility than Netanyahu has with his; and Netanyahu is insane for not claiming American citizenship and quickly entering the Republican primary—he’d be a shoo-in.)

But the far-east side of Manhattan is not where the action is. Palestinian protesters are throwing stones at Israeli soldiers near the Qalandiya checkpoint. A Palestinian man was shot dead in a clash with the IDF in a West Bank village. A car in the West Bank overturned under murky circumstances, leaving a Jewish father and baby dead. Is this the start of the Third Intifada?

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.