A La Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas began his UN GA speech thus:

Mr. President, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of Israel’s colonial occupation is crystal clear to the world.

Since the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including east Jerusalem in 1967, Israel continues with its settlement policy on all Palestinian land, especially in holy Jerusalem, where that policy is currently being accelerated and escalated through various means including the seizure of the homes of Palestinian inhabitants in the city and the imposition of restrictions and even preventing Palestinians from building and sometimes from repairing their homes, while new settlement neighborhoods are being established. And Jerusalem is becoming completely isolated from its surroundings because of the illegal settlements and the apartheid wall.

We now face a unique situation. If international law stipulates the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, how can we, then, deal with the current situation where Israeli settlement policy will undermine the goal of establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state and implementation of the will of the international consensus that has been expressed in the various resolutions and principles, including the roadmap, which we all agreed upon and which is based on the principle of land for peace and ending the occupation that began in 1967.

Sounds wonderful, if you are an Arab, an anti-Zionist, a far left-wing radical who has not only no understanding of but also no sympathy for Jewish national feelings, if you have little or no knowledge of history or if you simply are ignorant but sob-stories always work well on you.

Words and terms like

"suffering", "Palestinian people", "Israel’s colonial occupation", "occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including east Jerusalem in 1967", settlement policy", "Palestinian land", "holy Jerusalem", "seizure of the homes", "illegal settlements", "apartheid wall", "international law", "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force", "a geographically contiguous Palestinian state"

and so on perhaps excite you, move you, agitate you or perhaps make you angry.

But it's a put on. Propaganda in part, perversion of the facts in part, insidious inversion of what actually was agreed upon and what the history of the conflict was.