Israel’s UN envoy slams Abbas’s ‘time bomb’ speech

Obama said ‘disappointed’ by lack of diplomatic progress under PM

US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro says President Barack Obama was “disappointed” in the lack of progress towards a two-state solution under the Israeli leader.

Speaking from the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Shapiro tells Army Radio that while Obama still believes there is a chance for positive developments in his final three months in office, he has accepted that he will not achieve the significant progress he had originally hoped for.

“Obama aspired to help Israel achieve its goal of two states for two peoples. There is disappointment over what was not achieved but at the same time there is still a will and an obligation to move forward, however possible, in the right direction,” Shapiro says.

Food giant Osem finds salmonella in its salads

Osem, one of Israel’s largest food manufacturers, says it has found traces of salmonella contamination in one of its production lines.

The company discovered the bacteria in a routine examination last week.

The products that may have been affected, and which are marketed under the name Tzabar, never left the factory, a spokesperson says. The products include hummus, tehini and eggplant salad. The company stresses that there is no risk in any of their products that have reached the shelves.

“The Health Ministry was notified immediately,” the company says. “Cleaning the production line caused a delay in supply of some of the company’s products, but now we have returned to full production capacity. All the products that reached the shelves passed rigorous checks.”

One hurt as crane topples over at Tel Aviv building site

One person is hurt when a crane topples over at a construction site for the new light rail in Tel Aviv.

Police and rescue personnel are deployed to the scene on Yehuda Halevy Street, close to where it bisects the central Allenby Street, Ynet reports.

Israel increases interrogations of Gazan travelers, NGO says

An Israeli advocacy group is reporting a sharp jump in the number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who have been summoned for questioning by Israeli security agents as a condition for leaving the blockaded territory.

Gisha, which pushes for freedom of movement for Gaza’s 1.8 million people, says more than 1,200 Gazans underwent interrogations during the first half of this year. That is two and a half times the number the previous year.

Critics say the policy puts Gazan travelers in a difficult position by making them look like potential collaborators.

Israeli officials say the practice is a necessary security measure. They say that Hamas often tries to take advantage of civilians, including medical patients, in order to build up its capabilities in Israel and the West Bank.

Palestinian members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, display Qassam home-made rockets during an anti-Israel military parade on August 21, 2016 in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

— AP

New book recounts bid to reunite Holocaust survivors, US liberators

A new book details the efforts by an upstate New York teacher to reunite Jewish survivors of a Nazi concentration camp train with the US soldiers who rescued them.

“A Train Near Magdeburg” compiles years of research and interviews by Matthew Rozell, a history teacher at Hudson Falls High School.

A student project he started years ago led him to the story of American soldiers who liberated 2,500 starving Jewish prisoners from a German train in April 1945.

Nine years ago this month, one of those soldiers and three of the survivors held a reunion in Rozell’s classroom. Since then, scores of other train survivors and their children have come forward, and several other reunions have been held.

A documentary film on the story is in the works by Emmy Award-winning director Mike Edwards.

— AP

Israeli nabbed at airport for allegedly defrauding NIS 17m

Police arrest a 33-year-old Israeli at Ben Gurion Airport on suspicion of conning NIS 17 million (approx. $4.5 million) from investors for a new app, by presenting them with false information about the popularity of the product.

The unidentified man, from Kadima in central Israel, is apprehended at the airport as he returns to the country after six months abroad.

— Shoshanna Solomon

Assad blames US for Syria truce collapse

Syrian President Bashar Assad rejects US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a ceasefire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.

Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks to The Associated Press at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria in a photo released by the Syrian presidency on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via AP)

Assad tells AP that deadly US airstrikes on Syrian troops last week were intentional, dismissing American officials’ statements that they were an accident. He also says the US lacks “the will” to join forces with Russia in fighting extremists.

The president blames his enemies for nearly six years of devastation across Syria, and while acknowledging some mistakes, he denies any excesses by his troops. He says the war is only likely to “drag on” because of continued external support for his opponents.

“When you have many external factors that you don’t control, it’s going to drag on and no one in this world can tell you when” the war will end, Assad says.

— AP

Top EU lawyer says Hamas should be dropped from terror list

A top EU lawyer says Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas and Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers rebel group LTTE should be taken off the bloc’s terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the decision to add them.

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes against the two groups under rules drawn up after the September 11, 20101 attacks in the US. Both groups appealed.

The EU’s General Court (Courtesy Court of Justice of the European Union)

The General Court, second to the European Court of Justice, ruled in 2014 that the EU based its decision on publicly available information, not on a finding by a competent authority. The European Council of the 28 member states in turn appealed that decision.

Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston of the ECJ says the EU “cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing.”

Accordingly, the ECJ “should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organizations on procedural grounds,” she says.

Turkish border town hit by rocket fired from Syria — reports

Reports say a rocket fired from an area in Syria held by Islamic State hits the center of a Turkish town, causing injuries.

According to NTV television, the rocket hit a market area in the border town of Kilis, shattering windows and leaving at least two wounded.

Syrian refugees walk on their way back to the Syrian city of Jarabulus on September 7, 2016 at Karkamis crossing gate, in the southern region of Kilis, Turkey. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)

The strike comes one month into an unprecedented incursion into Syria by Turkish forces aimed at rooting the IS jihadists out of the border area.

Kilis has come under repeated attack from rocket fire from Syria in the last months, with 22 people losing their lives, over half of them Syrian refugees.

— AFP

Rivlin to hold his first ever Twitter Q&A

President Reuven Rivlin will next Sunday hold his first Q&A session on Twitter, running on both his English and Hebrew accounts.

The session will use both text and video, and questions can be submitted in advance using the hashtag #AskRivlin.

“While I have often referred to myself as an analogue president, in a digital age, I am delighted for the opportunity to engage with people around the world and answer their questions,” says Rivlin, who became president in 2014 after more than 20 years as an MK, minister and Knesset speaker.

There is still time to submit a question… #AskRivlin pic.twitter.com/Q1oFTk6Hab

— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) September 22, 2016

— JTA

Texas rabbis want state to stay in refugee resettlement program

Forty-three Texas rabbis sign a letter calling on the state’s governor to remain in the US refugee resettlement program.

“At this moment, with the number of refugees and displaced persons at its highest in recorded history, it is more important than ever for Texas to protect and welcome refugees,” reads the letter sent yesterday, hours after Governor Greg Abbott announced he was withdrawing the state from the program over concerns about the lack of effective security screening of refugees.

Texas has welcomed more refugees in recent years than any other state, including the most of any state between October 2015 and March 2016.

Five members of the Jouriyeh family, Syrian refugees headed to the US as part of a resettlement program. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

The rabbis’ letter was spearheaded by HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, which was founded in 1881 to help Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe.

“Since its founding, the United States has offered refuge and protection to the world’s most vulnerable. Time and time again, those refugees were Jews. Whether they were welcomed to Texas by the ‘Galveston Movement’ after fleeing Czarist Russia, or whether they came later following the horrors of the Holocaust, or the persecution in Soviet Russia or Iran, our relatives and friends found safety in this country, and in the great state of Texas,” reads the letter.

“Refugees in Texas are taxpayers, consumers, business owners and leaders in a broad range of industries across the state. It is imperative that refugees in Texas continue to be fully welcome and supported in their new homes and that they receive the critical health and social services promised to them,” the rabbis say.

Opposition ‘minister’ among 12 dead in Syria car bomb — rebels

Syria’s opposition government says one of its senior officials is among at least 12 people killed in a car bomb attack in the south of the country.

“Twelve people, including the [opposition] provisional government’s local administration minister, Yaacoub al-Ammar, were killed,” says spokesman Shadi al-Jundi by telephone.

He says dozens of others have been wounded in the attack in Enkhel, in Daraa province of southern Syria.

— AFP

UK-based Muslim charity suing Israel over West Bank ban

A British-based Muslim charity is taking Israel’s government to court over a ban on the organization operating in the West Bank, The Times of Israel’s partner the Jewish News reports.

The website says that then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon placed Islamic Relief Worldwide on a banned list in 2014, due to accusations that it was funneling funds to the Hamas terror group.

Islamic Relief denies the claims, the Jewish News says, adding that an independent audit found “absolutely no evidence” that the charity was transferring money to Hamas.

Iran oil industry fires spark hacking fears

A series of fires at Iranian petrochemical plants and facilities have raised suspicions about potential hacking, as authorities say “viruses had contaminated” equipment at several of the affected complexes.

Iran officially insists the six known blazes over the span of three months aren’t the result of a cyberattack. But acknowledgment that supposedly protected facilities are infected does point to the possibility of a concerted effort to target Iranian infrastructure.

Among the worst of the fires was a massive, days-long inferno in July at the Bou Ali Sina Petrochemical Complex in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan. Insurance officials later estimated the damage at some $67 million. A preliminary investigation said the blaze was caused by a leak of paraxylene, a flammable hydrocarbon. It did not elaborate.

Iranian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at the Bou Ali Sina Petrochemical Complex in southwestern Iran on July 4, 2016. (Borna Ghasemi/ISNA via AP)

— AP

Rouhani at UNGA: 9/11 attacks, response led to widespread war

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani begins speech to the UN General Assembly by saying that 9/11 attacks and subsequent response led to terrorism “everywhere on earth.”

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addresses the United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York on Thursday, September 22, 2016 (screen capture)

Rouhani: ‘Zionist pressure groups’ operating in US Congress

Rouhani tells the UN General Assembly that “Zionist pressure groups” are pushing US Congress to “pass indefensible legislation,” an apparent reference to possible sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

Tibi: PA trying to oust Israel from international soccer

Arab MK Ahmed Tibi confirms plans by the Palestinian Authority to press for Israel’s suspension from the world soccer body FIFA and its European counterpart UEFA.

According to Army Radio, Tibi says Palestinian lawmakers have approached the two organizations over expelling Israeli teams.

US Army chief: No doubt Russia responsible for aid convoy hit

The top US military officer tells a Senate committee he has no doubt that Russia is responsible for the airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria, calling it an unacceptable atrocity.

US Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says both Russian and Syrian aircraft were in the area at the time of the strike.

Aid is seen strewn across the ground in the town of Orum al-Kubra on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on September 20, 2016, the morning after a convoy delivering aid was hit by a deadly air strike. (AFP/Omar Haj Kadour)

He tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’s not certain which aircraft dropped the bombs, killing 20 civilians.

A senior US official said yesterday that the US has a very high degree of confidence that the attack was carried out by a Russian-piloted aircraft. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke anonymously.

— AP

Berlin’s Jewish Museum casts light on mystic golem

The Jewish Museum Berlin this week opens a new exhibition about the fabled golem, presenting the legend in diverse and unconventional ways through 250 different objects.

First mentioned in ancient Jewish texts, a golem is an artificial being made from mud or other inanimate material that’s brought to life through the power of Hebrew letters. It became popular and known outside Judaism in a famous story about the 16th-century Rabbi Judah Loew, who is said to have created a golem out of clay in the hope it would help protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.

But the golem has a dark side and often spins out of control, making its superhuman powers a threat to its creator.

“The golem can look back on a long career, in Judaism and far beyond,” Peter Schaefer, the director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, tells reporters. “Its story begins in the Hebrew bible and continues, in constantly new transformations, into the present day.”

The exhibition, which opens tomorrow and runs through Jan. 29, shows both traditional images of the golem and modern-day incarnations.

There are medieval instructions explaining how to use incantations, rituals and specific Hebrew letter combinations to bring the golem to life. There are also videos, costumes and installations presenting different interpretations of the golem by 30 contemporary artists from Israel, the United States and elsewhere.

A women walks past artwork by Joshua Abrabanel during a press presentation for the ‘Golem’ exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

— AP

UN calls for stepped up security for planes, airports

The UN Security Council unanimously approves a resolution calling for stepped up screening and security checks at airports worldwide to “detect and deter terrorist attacks” on civil aviation.

The resolution calls on all countries to tighten security at airport buildings, share information about possible threats and provide advance passenger lists to national authorities.

An Israeli airport security guard patrols with a dog in Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

It is the first resolution solely focused on an issue of growing international concern: Attacks on airplanes and airports from Ukraine and Egypt to Brussels and Istanbul.

The resolution expresses the council’s concern “that terrorist groups continue to view civil aviation as an attractive target, with the aim of causing substantial loss of life, economic damage” and air links between countries.

— AP

Egypt arrests 4 after migrant boat capsizes, killing dozens

Egyptian authorities arrest four people in connection with the death of at least 42 migrants whose Europe-bound boat capsized off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast yesterday.

Officials say the four were members of the vessel’s crew and were remanded in police custody for four days pending further investigation. They face charges of human trafficking and manslaughter.

Authorities also issue arrest warrants for five more people wanted in connection with the tragedy, according to the officials. The Egyptian military says the boat was 12 nautical miles off the coast near the town of Rosetta when it capsized.

Young Egyptians detained at a police station sleep on the floor in Rosetta, Egypt, after rescued from a boat capsized off the Mediterranean coast near the Egyptian city of Alexandria, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Eman Helal)

More than 24 hours after the incident, uncertainty endures over the exact number of migrants who were on board the vessel before it capsized, with estimates ranging between 250, 400 and 600.

Egypt’s official news agency MENA says the boat was carrying 600 people, and if this number is confirmed, the incident will go down as one of the deadliest tragedies to take place on the migrant route across the Mediterranean. Survivors say most of those who died were women and children.

— AP

Abbas to UN: Israel must cease settlement construction, executions

PA President Mahmoud Abbas tells the UN General Assembly that the Palestinians have stuck to the agreements it has signed and calls on Israel to do the same in order to reach a peace deal.

“We have accepted premises of international law, made historical and immense sacrifices when the PLO accepted to establish State of Palestine on 1967 borders,” he says. “What more can be asked of us?”

He says that “Israel must reciprocate” with these measures, and cease settlement construction, collective punishment and extrajudicial executions.

Abbas to UN: Current situation cannot continue

Abbas tells the UN that the PA is no longer willing to accept interim solutions to the conflict with Israel.

“We will never accept the humiliation of our people,” he says. “We will never accept temporary or interim institutions. We will seek to mobilize Arab and international efforts to achieve this end. We will not accept a continuation of the current situation.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, September 22, 2016 (screenshot)

Abbas at UN: Israel destroying two-state solution

Abbas tells the UN that Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem “will destroy whatever possibility is left of the two-state solution.”

He says Israel signed the 1994 Oslo Accords, which were “intended to end the occupation, to achieve independence of the State of Palestine in five years,” but adds that, “Israel renounced the agreement it signed and until now continues occupation and illegal settlements, which undermines two-state solution on the basis of 1967 borders.”

He asks: “Does Israel want one state?”

Abbas: We recognize Israel, it must reciprocate

Abbas tells the UN that Israel must reciprocate Palestinian recognition of its statehood, and slams Netanyahu for criticizing PA disapproval of the Balfour Declaration.

“Instead of Israel acknowledging the atrocities that it has committed and continues to commit against our people, the Israeli prime minister has the audacity to criticize Palestine’s statement at the Arab League Summit in Nouakchott because we referred to the Balfour Declaration,” Abbas says.

“[O]ur 1993 recognition of the existence of the State of Israel, a recognition which remains valid to this moment, is not a gratuitous recognition. Israel must reciprocate with recognition of the State of Palestine and an end to its occupation of the land, so that the State of Palestine can coexist alongside the State of Israel in peace and security and as good neighbors, each within secure and recognized borders,” he says.

Abbas: UK must apologize for Balfour Declaration

Abbas says the British government should apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which lays out London’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

“We ask Britain, as we approach 100 years since this notorious declaration to draw the necessary lessons and to bear its historic, legal, political, material and moral responsibilities for the consequences of this declaration,” he says, “including an apology to the Palestinian people for the catastrophes, miseries and injustices that it created, and to act to rectify this historic catastrophe and remedy its consequences, including by recognition of the State of Palestine.”

Abbas to UN: Make Israel accountable for seizing land

Abbas tells the UN that the Security Council has failed to take proper punitive measures against Israel for what he says is a land grab by the Jewish state, which is in violation of the UN’s 1947 Partition Plan.

“[T]he Security Council is not upholding its responsibilities to hold Israel accountable for its seizure of the territory allotted to the Palestinian state according to the partition resolution,” he says. “I appeal to you read this resolution once again.”

Abbas to UN: Recognize 2 states, not just one

The PA president says the entire world should recognize the state of Palestine, singling out those nations he says “have harmed the rights of our people to rectify this injustice.”

He calls the state of Palestine “a state under occupation,” and says the PLO Executive Committee is “the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people wherever they may be.”

“Those who believe in the two-state solution should recognize both states, and not just one of them,” he says.

Abbas to UN: Let 2017 be the year the occupation ends

Abbas concludes his speech to the UN General Assembly by asking that the world “to bring an end to the Israeli occupation of the land of the state of Palestine,” which he calls “the longest and last occupation in contemporary history.”

He says a push from the international community “would surely constitute a unique opportunity for peace, stability and coexistence to prevail in our region and between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”

Abbas concludes his speech by saying: “It is my hope that… there is a collective responsibility upon you to ensure that 2017 is the year of ending the occupation.”

Netanyahu begins General Assembly speech by blasting UN

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins his speech by blasting the UN for its anti-Israel bias.

“Year after year I slammed the UN. The UN deserved every scathing word,” he says. “Israel: 20 resolutions, rest of the world: 3. And what about the joke called the Human Rights Council? More each year against Israel than any other country in the world combined.”

“The UN, which had begun as a moral force has become a moral farce,” he quips.

PM: More and more see Israel as a partner

Netanyahu tells the UN that 160 countries have ties with Israel, “nearly double the number we had when I served here as ambassador some 30 years ago.”

He says that “more and more nations see Israel a partner,” and these ties “get broader and deeper every day.”

“Governments are changing their attitudes toward Israel because they know Israel can help feed their people… better their lives,” he adds.

PM: Arab states’ stance on Israel shifting due to common foes

Netanyahu tells UN that Arab nations are coming around to Israel in the face of mutual enemies.

“For the first time in my lifetime, many other states in the region recognize that Israel is not their enemy, they recognize that Israel is their ally. Our common enemies are Iran and ISIS,” he says, referring to the Islamic State.

PM hails Israel’s ‘deepest friendship’ with US

Netanyahu pays tribute at UN to Israel’s “deepest friendship” with the US, which he calls “the most powerful and most generous nation on earth.”

The first veto at the UN used by President was against an anti-Israel resolution in 2011, Netanyahu says.

Netanyahu blasts PA for suing Britain over Balfour Declaration

Netanyahu slams the Palestinians over their plan to sue the British government for the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

“That’s almost 100 years ago. Talk about being stuck in the past!” he says. “The Palestinians might as well sue Iran for the Cyrus declarations, or a class action suit against Abraham, for buying land in Hebron.”

Netanyahu at UN: Refusal to accept Jewish state is heart of conflict

Netanyahu says the heart of the conflict is not Israel’s settlements, but rather the Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state.

“This conflict is not about the settlements, it never was,” he says. “The issue of settlements is a real one, which must and can be resolved in final status negotiations.”

The prime minister says he is “ready to negotiate all final status issues,” but vows that he will “never negotiate our right to the one and only Jewish state.”

He adds: “If the Palestinians had said yes to a Jewish state in 1947 there would have been no war… and when they do finally say yes to a Jewish state we will be able to end this conflict once and for all.”

PM condemns firebomb attack on Palestinians: This is not our way

Netanyahu tells the UN that unlike the Palestinians, Israel does not tolerate extremists, something that “proves the profound difference between our societies.”

He gives the example of a deadly arson attack on the Palestinian Dawabsha family in the West Bank by suspected Jewish terrorists in July 2015, and Israel’s response to it.

“Today, the Jewish citizens of Israel accused of killing the Dawabshas are in an Israeli jail. It proves the profound difference between our societies. While Israel jails the handful of terrorists among us, the Palestinians pay thousands of terrorists,” he says.

In UN speech, Netanyahu invites Abbas to address Knesset

In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu tells Abbas that he wants him to address the Knesset in Jerusalem, and he is willing to make the same gesture in return.

“I would gladly come to speak peace with the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah,” he says.

President Abbas, I invite you to come and speak at the Knesset in Jerusalem and I will gladly come to speak at the parliament in Ramallah

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 22, 2016

PM: Israel will never let Iran develop nukes

Netanyahu vows that Israel will never let Iran obtain atomic weapons, and says the threat of Tehran’s nuclear program was not neutralized by last year’s internationally brokered agreement.

“The threat Iran poses to all of us is not behind us, it’s before us,” he says. “Israel will not allow the terror state of Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Not now. Not in a decade. Not ever.”

Israeli envoy: Abbas’s words like a ‘ticking time bomb’

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon slams Abbas’s speech at the General Assembly, saying his claim of “Israeli aggression against our Muslim and Christian holy sites” is tantamount to “a ticking time bomb.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon in April 2016 (Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images/JTA)

“Abbas chose to use the UN pulpit to represent Palestinian terror,” Danon says in a statement sent to the media shortly after the Palestinian leader spoke. “His dangerous words are sure to lead to even more terror attacks against Israel. The Palestinian youth listening to his speech today, will be the terrorists of tomorrow.”

Danon also draws a direct connection between Abbas’s “hateful” comments and a rise in attacks against Israelis.

“Abbas’s words are like a ticking time bomb,” he says.

Arab MK: PM’s speech is new low of hypocrisy

MK Jamal Zahalka of Joint (Arab) List slams Netanyahu for his speech at the UN General Assembly, calling it “a new low of hypocrisy” and aimed at stalling any peace efforts.

“Netanyahu’s UN speech is a new low of hypocrisy and excuses to prevent a just peace,” he says. “He talked about children, democracy and peace, and stood on the stage at the United Nations while 500 children for whose deaths he is responsible in Operation Protective Edge are buried under the ground. Netanyahu’s remarks are a recipe for further bloodshed and prove to what extent Netanyahu is dangerous and an enemy of peace.”

— Dov Lieber

Meretz chief: PM’s invite to Abbas nothing but lip service

Meretz leader Zehava Galon dismisses Netanyahu’s invitation for Abbas to address the Knesset as “lip service.”

“No one is buying this invitation to the Knesset for Abbas,” she says, according to Walla. “It was lip service and and empty talk. If Netanyahu wants a [final status] agreement he can take steps to advance it,” she says.

“Netanyahu has rhetoric that sounds wonderful in English, but on the ground he is whitewashing illegal outposts. His words were not meant for Abbas’s ears, but Obama’s ears,” she adds.