Obama to Palestine at UN: No 'Shortcut' to Peace With Israel
Obama urges Palestine and Israel to take responsibility in his speech to the General Assembly
President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning to urge Palestinians to withdraw the UN bid for statehood, saying there is "no shortcut" to peace between Israel and Palestine.
Obama opened his speech by addressing the difficulty of attaining peace, which he attributes as the original purpose of creating the United Nations.
“We have got to make not merely peace but a peace that will last.”
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Compromise, he said, is the best way to achieve this peace, evidently serving as a nod to Palestinian and Israeli nations.
“Peace is hard, and we have more work to do.”
Although one year ago President Obama stood at the podium of the United Nations and stated that Palestine should be an independent state, he now argues that UN statehood is not the proper way to attain this.
According to Obama, it is not the UN’s job to create peace between Palestine and Israel. Those two countries alone can achieve peace through compromise.
Compromise, he argued, is the only plausible path to an independent Israeli and Palestinian state.
“The deadlock will only be broken if each side stands in the other side’s shoes,” he contended. “There are no shortcuts to a conflict that has been going on for decades.”
Political pundits predict that UN Statehood would give Palestine too much power, thus making tense relations in the Middle East erupt into more war.
“There is no shortcut to an end of a conflict that has gone on for decades. Peace is hard work,” he said.
If Palestine garners the 9 out of 10 votes from Security Council to attain statehood, Obama will be forced to use U.S. veto power to deny the statehood.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is also expected to make a speech at the UN Wednesday urging the council to vote no on Palestinian statehood.
Both Israel and Palestine will speak Friday. A meeting between the two countries is predicted as highly unlikely.
