NEW YORK - World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said Tuesday that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's remarks on Israel in his address to the 71st General Assembly were a "missed opportunity."
“The United Nations was created on the broken bones of the Jewish people, so that the horror of the Holocaust would never be repeated. The Secretary General’s statement today at the opening session of the General Assembly sadly missed an opportunity to denounce terrorism and urge the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table," Lauder said. "Holding Israel disproportionately responsible for the deteriorating conditions separating Israelis and Palestinians does not further the cause of peace.”
In his speech, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel “are being lowered by the day.”
“It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness,” he said, calling West Bank settlements “obstacles to progress.”
“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.
