Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE ISRAELI AND Palestinian leaders today stood poles apart at the UN General Assembly, clashing over the cause of their decades-old conflict and Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
A flare-up in violence has killed 230 Palestinians and 34 Israelis since last October, which analysts say has been fueled by Palestinian frustration with Israeli settlement building, fractured Palestinian leadership and zero progress on peace efforts.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who was elected 11 years ago and whose control is limited to autonomous areas in the occupied West Bank with radical group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, took the podium first at the General Assembly, slamming Jewish settlement expansion.
“What the Israeli government is doing in pursuit of its expansionist settlement plans will destroy whatever possibility is left for the two-state solution along the 1967 borders,” Abbas warned.
‘A Jewish state’
Shortly afterwards, and separated by just one speaker — the prime minister of Norway — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the platform to directly contradict Abbas.
“This conflict has never been about the settlements or about establishing a Palestinian state,” said Netanyahu.
“It’s always been about the existence of a Jewish state, a Jewish state in any boundary,” he added.
Israel has just secured a historic, 10-year $38 billion military aid package from the United States, drawing a line under years of fractured relations with President Barack Obama stemming partly in White House perceptions that Netanyahu is reluctant to broker peace.
Netanyahu told the General Assembly that Haifa, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, all cities in Israel, were “the real settlements they are after.”
The issue of settlements in the West Bank was “real,” he conceded, but said it “can and must be resolved in final negotiations, final-status negotiations.”
Abbas said Palestinians were working to “exert all efforts” with Arab and other “friendly countries” to get the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on settlements and the “terror of the settlers.”
Recognition
“The settlements are illegal in every aspect,” Abbas said.
Netanyahu levelled extensive criticism against the United Nations for showing anti-Israeli bias but said his country was building closer relationships every day with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America rooted in Israeli expertise in fighting terror and technology.
“Those who believe in the two-state solution should recognise both states, and not just one of them,” said Abbas.
Last year the United Nations raised for the first time the Palestinian flag — a symbolic gesture supported by the majority of UN members after the latest US peace initiative collapsed in 2014.
Deadlock
Palestine is not a full UN member state, though it has observer status.
“We extend our hands to those who want to build peace,” said Abbas, albeit slamming Israeli attitudes.
“It is Israel’s breach of the agreements it has signed and its failure to comply with the obligations that have led us to the deadlock and stalemate that we remain in now.”
Israel says Palestinian incitement is the main cause of violence that has swept the region over the last year.
Most of the Palestinians who died were killed carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israel says. Others were shot dead during protests or killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
Washington said on 31 August that it was “deeply concerned” following an announcement that Israel had approved the construction of 463 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The approvals mostly involved new housing units, but a retroactive green light was also granted to 179 existing homes in the Ofarim settlement, said the Peace Now organization.
A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the UN and the United States — said construction of settlements on land earmarked to be part of a future Palestinian state is eroding the possibility of a two-state solution.
- © AFP 2016.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Waiting time for what? If you are in the Emergency Department, it is the same for public and private patients….if you are on a waiting list there is a big difference.
There is no difference between insured and not insured turning up at A&E. The difference is the waiting lists. It’s a gamble, health insurance cuts waiting time for surgery, but is it worth the money?
My question is it worth having health insurance?. My experience so far is my waiting time is practically same. What is others experience?
Mt father has severed with a heart condition for over 15 years , despite the fact he never smoked or drank in his life. He is a member of the VHI and I firmly believe he would not be alive today if he wasn’t. Though the premiums are very stiff for pensioners at the first sign of trouble he is admitted to the Bons Hospital in Cork and gets the care he needs. There is no price too high to know he is never left waiting on a bed or lying on a trolley in some draughty hall. He has worked hard all this life and it’s the very least he deserves.
if the industry is in decline, why did 2 companies join the competition for business.
Money, plain and simple. The general insurance market has annual premiums of approx €1.6 billion pa and about 13/14 main providers. Private health insurance markets annual premiums approx €2 billion and only four providers. Glohealth and Aviva are targeting the younger members of the market by not providing full orthopaedic cover on many of their plans, which does not appeal to the older (riskier) consumers out there.
That was before this came into effect see how quick they are gone when it does come in
Can I ask is there any point in having children’s private health insurance? There are no private beds in children’s hospitals are there? And if your child has a condition you can be assessed privately but you can’t go privately for treatment I think, am I right? So you just end up on a list like everyone else. I am a mum with health insurance for my children by the way.
Susan, for me it’s a question of will my child get seriously ill, yes or no? Private health insurance has no benefits over public when it comes to the normal bumps and breaks your child will have. It’s only an insurance againgts the really serious illnesses that a child may have. Now this is my only personal opinion of course :)
Also I must add that it’s no use having public hospitals that double up as private ones. My wife, who has private health care through work was left on a trolley in St. Luke’s after having surgery because there was not a bed (she supposedly was entitled to a private room!)
Yeah Steve. I’ve experienced something similar, and imagine my shock when my health insurer sends me the invoice a few months later, and I discover that the hospital have charged for private accommodation.
If you have school children and you obtain the 24 hour school insurance that also includes school holidays is it worth having a separate health insurance for them as well?? This is a regular topic of conversation in work and no one seems to know the correct answer!!
Mine is up for renewal and I am buying prize bonds from now on with the money hopefully if and when it’s needed there might be enough to cover me and also I might win a few bob being asked to pay twice for insurance and them to be levied is a disgrace
When my son was a baby he needed an mri of his brain and though we had private health cover, he had to wait 14mths on one as there are no private mris for children. I’m not sure it’s any use though I still pay it.
Oh goodness, poor little guy! From what I read / hear this is common, health insurance for kiddies doesn’t speed up the process at all and that’s worrying.
Gavan, with respect, your headline is misleading. In fact the only one of the four insurers who called today for the levy to be scrapped is GloHealth. (I watched this today, and the others didn’t ask for it to be scrapped). They called for this to be scrapped to attract younger people into the market. The levy is used to fund discounts for older and sicker people, so it’s not surprising that GloHealth want it ended. As a brand new health insurer they are likely to have very few older customers like the other insurers who have been around much longer.
GloHealth are the same people who set up Vivas Health. They are trying to push an American style of health insurance in Ireland. They lobby government intensely.
Here’s a radical way of cutting down on health insurance costs!!!! Cut the bloated payments to hospital consultants! It’s a crime that hospital consultants are earning over €500k a year between public and private work.
A lot of people are under the impression that if you go into a public bed in a public hospital there are no charges. Unless you have a medical card you will be charged for a public bed.
When health insurance was discussed on midweek a few months ago the experts opinion was in favour of people having health insurance if they dont have a medical card. She said that kids should have only the basic level of cover as there are no private childrens hospitals in ireland.
All part of the drive to price health insurance based on risk. Welcome to America.
have your say