Herzog: Abbas speech distorts reality

Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog says Mahmoud Abbas’s reference to Israel as an apartheid state in his speech to the UN “distorts” the truth and “only benefit the extremists on both sides.”

Herzog also accuses the Palestinian leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of engaging in empty rhetoric, the Maariv website reports.

“Israelis and Palestinians deserve the hope of a normal life. Abbas and Netanyahu are leaders who are afraid of making decisions, and instead emit slogans and mutual recriminations while leaving us to face a difficult situation and an uncertain future,” he says.

“Instead take advantage of a rare opportunity in the Middle East to forge alliances with moderate countries who want to be our partners against rampant Islamist terrorism, they indulge in idle rhetoric.”