US, After Criticizing Abbas UN Speech, Finds Fault with Netanyahu’s, Too

The United States responded to a main theme of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday by telling the Israeli leader that “Hamas is not ISIS.” Netanyahu’s parallel between the two organizations was clearly intended to elevate international angst against Hamas by pairing it with ISIS, the terrorist organization in which arguably no one finds redeeming factors. But in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was the first Obama administration official to respond, saying, “They are both designated terrorist organizations under the United States designations, but certainly we see differences in terms of the threat and otherwise.” The US also doesn’t buy Netanyahu’s assertion that all of the Islamist terrorist organizations he listed are seeking the creation of a caliphate – a state run by strict Islamic law.  The elevation in personal attacks by Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was apparent in both speeches; Abbas charging Israeli genocide and Netanyahu casting Abbas as a Holocaust denier. President Abbas is submitting his proposal for peace with Israel to the Security Council this week seeking a resolution that re-starts negotiations for 9-months and sets a specific, guaranteed timetable for the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from post-1967 territory.