Mr Netanyahu called on Mr Abbas - the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) - to begin negotiations with Israel instead of "wasting time on unilateral moves".

He said: "I call on the PA chair to open direct negotiations in New York, that will continue in Jerusalem and Ramallah."

Analysts say the call is an attempt to stop Mr Abbas from launching his UN membership request.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14981633

US president Barack Obama rejected Palestinian plans to seek UN blessing for statehood as he tried to avert a looming crisis that could erode Washington's global standing and further isolate its close ally Israel.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mr Obama insisted that Middle East peace "will not come through statements and resolutions" at the world body, and put the onus on the two sides to break a year-long impasse and return to peace talks.

With Palestinians determined to force a vote on full membership at the UN at the end of this week, there are frantic moves behind the scenes to prevent a showdown.

Mr Obama delivered his speech at the same podium where he called for an independent Palestine one year ago.

"I believed then and I believe now that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said was that a genuine peace can only be realised between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves," he said.

"Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately it is Israelis and Palestinians, not us, who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them.

"There is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-22/obama-at-un-talks-on-palestinian-statehood/2910672

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Yep, let not be hasty in solving "that" problem...

UNITED NATIONS — A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obama tried to qualify his own call, just a year ago, for a Palestinian state. And President Nicolas Sarkozy of France stepped forcefully into the void, with a proposal that pointedly repudiated Mr. Obama’s approach.

The extraordinary tableau Wednesday at the United Nations underscored a stark new reality: the United States is facing the prospect of having to share, or even cede, its decades-long role as the architect of Middle East peacemaking.

Even before Mr. Obama walked up to the General Assembly podium to make his difficult address, where he declared that “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.,” American officials acknowledged that their various last-minute attempts to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with help from European allies and Russia had collapsed.

American diplomats turned their attention to how to navigate a new era in which questions of Palestinian statehood are squarely on the global diplomatic agenda. There used to be three relevant players in any Middle East peace effort: the Palestinians, Israel and the United States. But expansions of settlements in the West Bank and a hardening of Israeli attitudes have isolated Israel and its main backer, the United States. Dissension among Palestinian factions has undermined the prospect for a new accord as well.

Finally, Washington politics has limited Mr. Obama’s ability to try to break the logjam if that means appearing to distance himself from Israel. Republicans have mounted a challenge to lure away Jewish voters who supported Democrats in the past, after some Jewish leaders sharply criticized Mr. Obama for trying to push Israel too hard.

The result has been two and a half years of stagnation on the Middle East peace front that has left Arabs — and many world leaders — frustrated, and ready to try an alternative to the American-centric approach that has prevailed since the 1970s.

“The U.S. cannot lead on an issue that it is so boxed in on by its domestic politics,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator in the government of Ehud Barak. “And therefore, with the region in such rapid upheaval and the two-state solution dying, as long as the U.S. is paralyzed, others are going to have to step up.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/obama-rebuffed-as-palestinians-pursue-un-seat.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Why the US government feels it retains any credibility throughout the Middle East on the Palestinian question is baffling, but Obama and Clinton have been desperate to avoid the bludgeon of a veto in the UN Security council (though even here there is a mechanism – the Uniting for Peace process, installed 61 years ago during the Korean crisis - for an over-ride of any such veto by the General Assembly.)

If it ever comes to one, a UN resolution won't give the Palestinians a viable state, nor solve the problems of refugees, nor the separation between the West Bank and Gaza, nor discrimination within Israel which is now emphasising its legal identity as a Jewish state.

Even so, the Palestinian initiative with the UN underscores the US's weakening status in the region, whose political geography has been changing before our eyes.

Yes Gus,

Barack is certainly "baracking" for Zionism & we're all the poorer for that ....

Barack Obama's speech to the UN overnight was farcical in its ineptitude, showing once again how beholden America remains to a vision of apartheid Israel. Some "highlights":

We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve. There is no question that the Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long. And it is precisely because we believe so strongly in the aspirations of the Palestinian people that America has invested so much time and effort in the building of a Palestinian state, and the negotiations that can deliver a Palestinian state.

But understand this is well America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable, and our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. S we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day. Let's be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel's citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel's children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, and persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are.

Those are facts. They cannot be denied. The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.

Obama has been one of Israel's "best" friends, offering weapons, support for illegal colonies and diplomatic backing. In other words, indulging Israel's self-destructive instinct.

But for some (mostly old Jews), Obama isn't loving enough:

Antony Loewenstein

If you think Israelis and Palestinians don't see eye to eye, the gulf between secular Israelis and the ultra-orthodox religious is probably just as wide.

Go to Tel Aviv on a Saturday morning, and you'll see one version of Israel – secular, middle-class sun-worshippers, sitting in trendy beachside cafes, munching on bacon and eggs, or hummus and salad.

Then, on the same Saturday morning, drive 40 minutes up the highway to Jerusalem, where you'll visit an entirely different country. Here, there are no cars, and streets are closed off with police barriers – as ultra-orthodox Jews in black overcoats and fur hats walk to the Western Wall to pray.

And no, the two groups don't get along.

Secular Israelis work, pay taxes, and serve in the army. Ultra-orthodox, or Haredi Jews, don't.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-23/knight-make-no-mistake-israels-existence-is-under-threat/2935080