The United States will not “chase after a Palestinian leadership that lacks what is needed to achieve peace,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday.
During a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Haley criticized a Jan. 14 speech by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah.
“A speech that indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy theories is not the speech of a person with the courage and the will to seek peace,” Haley said.
Abbas sharply escalated his rhetoric in the speech, lashing out at Trump over recent policy moves, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Abbas also slammed Trump’s recent Twitter comment threatening to cut American aid.
Abbas said to Trump: “Yehreb Beitak,” which literally translates as “may your house be destroyed.”
Abbas made it crystal clear that Donald Trump’s administration would have no part in brokering or sponsoring future negotiations with Israel. That role would be handed over to the United Nations or a committee of several countries. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the ultimate deal died before it was born.
Europeans, Abbas claimed, “wanted to bring the Jews here [to the Land of Israel] from Europe in order to protect European interests in the region. They asked The Netherlands, which then had the largest navy in the world, to relocate the Jews.”
Abbas then quoted an Egyptian writer who claimed that “Israel is a colonial project with no connection whatsoever to the Jews.
On Thursday, Haley said of Abbas’ Ramallah address: “A speech that indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy theories is not the speech of a person with the courage and the will to seek peace.”
“[The US won’t] chase after a Palestinian leadership that lacks what is needed to achieve peace.”
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