But, more importantly, the speeches at the UN General Assembly by the two rivals, Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, showed that any initiative to bring the parties back to the negotiating table might turn out to be futile.
Speeches do not make peace, but they can mar its prospects. Netanyahu and Abbas both showed once again how the politics surrounding "the peace process" has defeated the cause of peace. Both leaders exhibited utter indifference to the other's core concerns, and catered to their constituencies, Hamas and Israeli settlers included, making it clear, urbi et orbi, that the gaps separating their positions are as unbridgeable as ever. Netanyahu could not bring himself to admit the sins of occupation, or even to utter a minimal expression of empathy with the Palestinian tragedy of dispossession and dispersion. Israel's march of folly in expanding its West Bank settlements did not deserve a hint of soul searching on his part.
