PM to UN: Palestinians must show want peace

[Scurrilous]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/625574.html

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"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday in his address to the UN General Assembly that "as someone whose path of life led him to be a fighter and commander in all Israel's wars," he "reaches out today to our Palestinian neighbors in a call for reconciliation and compromise to end the bloody conflict, and embark on the path which leads to peace and understanding between our peoples." Sharon said he viewed this as "my calling and my primary mission for the coming years."

Sharon appeared moved. Speaking in Hebrew, the prime minister gave the speech a personal tone: "I was born in the Land of Israel, the son of pioneers people who tilled the land and sought no fights, who did not come to Israel to dispossess its residents. If circumstances had not demanded it, I would not have become a soldier, but rather a farmer and agriculturist. My first love was, and remains, manual labor; sowing and harvesting, the pastures, the flock and the cattle."

Sharon's central political message was his call for the establishment of a Palestinian state: "The right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel does not mean disregarding the rights of others in the land. The Palestinians will always be our neighbors. We respect them, and have no aspirations to rule over them. They are also entitled to freedom and to a national, sovereign existence in a state of their own."

Sharon called on Israel and the Palestinians to "work together," in order to "transform our plot of land, which is dear to both peoples, from a land of contention to a land of peace, for our children and grandchildren."


Analysis: At UN, Sharon made his farewell speech to the Likud

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/625617.html

"It's hard to think of a greater contrast than Ariel Sharon and the glass building of the United Nations in New York: the man whose biography was a model of belligerence, alongside the international organization derided in Israel as a symbol of diplomatic hypocrisy and impotence.

And lo, Sharon rose to the podium Thursday in the General Assembly hall for the first time and made a peace speech. For the first time he spoke of the Palestinians' right "to liberty and a sovereign national existence in a state of their own."

Sharon has spoken of a Palestinian state before, but always as a forced compromise, not as the natural right of the neighboring nation.

Sharon was excited, here and there he breathed heavily, and it was clear that he had prepared for the address carefully. For a moment it seemed that it was Yitzhak Rabin, his former commander, standing on the stage, reading one of the peace speeches that Eitan Habber had written for him. The same references to Jerusalem, the Jewish nation's eternal capital. The same apology for choosing the army and war as a way of life, which was forced on him instead of the farmwork he loved. The same call to the Palestinans to work together for peace "for our children and grandchildren."

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"Sharon's aides promised the speech would not be directed at the Likud Central Committee, and indeed it sounded like the prime minister's statement of farewell to his party. This is not the way people in the Likud talk, and Sharon appeared to understand that he has no chance of winning in the Likud and must embark on a new political way. This way heads toward the center, toward a public that wants peace and quiet and is willing to give up more territories in addition to the Gaza Strip. The speech in Hebrew, on prime time television, was intended to convey this message to every home in Israel."