United Nations: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly on Friday that his country desired peace with the Palestinians, but this could only be achieved through talks, not a UN resolution.
Netanyahu was speaking after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the General Assembly to ask it to recognise a Palestinian state. The latter filed a request with the UN for full membership earlier in the day.
"As Israel's prime minister I didn't come here for applause. I came here to speak the truth," he said at the start of his address.
"The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state," he told the hall.
Netanyahu complained to the hall that Israel was often pressured to make concessions.
"These people say to me constantly: just make a sweeping offer and everything will work out," he said, adding that the threat of "militant Islam" made it impossible to do so.
"When we left Gaza ... the moderates were devoured by the radicals," he said.
But if peace can be achieved through talks with the Palestinians, he said, "Israel will not be the last state to welcome a Palestinian state into the United Nations. We will be the first."
Israel criticises Palestinian president's UN speechIsrael on Friday described Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' address to the UN General Assembly as a "speech of incitement", Xinhua reported.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made the comments while speaking to a TV channel in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings.
Lieberman, a minister of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, said that Israel had no choice but to press ahead " without paying attention, and without making threats."
He said much of Abbas' speech was devoted to detailing how settlements have scuttled the peace process.
Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, in his reaction to Abbas' speech, said Abbas had clearly enlisted world opinion behind his cause to the detriment of Israel's international standing.
Abbas, during his speech, also called on the UN to admit an independent Palestinian state as a full member based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Minutes before his speech, Abbas formally presented the Palestinian statehood bid to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Several countries in the council have pledged their support for the statehood bid, but Israel's close ally the US has indicated that it would use its veto power in the council to stop it.
