According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, responding with a pointed post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Mahmoud Abbas, in his Zoom speech to the UN Assembly, says he’s willing to take back the Gaza Strip, which he so easily lost to Hamas in 2007,” Sa’ar wrote. “How generous of him.”
The minister went further, accusing Abbas of continuing practices that undermine peace efforts. “He also keeps encouraging terror by paying salaries to terrorists and to their families. To the West, he offers pretty words. But his people should draw conclusions from the key he wears on his suit lapel,” he added, emphasizing that Israel would remain cautious. “Israel will not be deceived again.”
The symbolism of Abbas’s attire also drew attention from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement addressing the Palestinian leader’s earlier UNGA appearance. The ministry pointed to Abbas’s decision to wear a lapel pin shaped like a key, a symbol widely associated with the Palestinian “right of return” for refugees from 1948.
“In his speech addressing the UN General Assembly, he wore a ‘key’ pin – an unmistakable symbol of his goal of erasing Israel,” the ministry said, framing the gesture as evidence of long-standing intentions within Palestinian leadership.
The Foreign Ministry linked the imagery to historical positions held by the Palestine Liberation Organization, contending that Abbas’s message remains unchanged despite his softer diplomatic tone before international audiences. “Abbas’s ‘key’ is the old PLO plan: two states for one Palestinian people and the destruction of the Jewish State,” the statement declared. “This will not happen.”
Israel’s leaders have long expressed skepticism over Abbas’s commitment to peaceful coexistence, accusing him of speaking differently to international leaders than to his domestic audience. The recurring criticism focuses not only on political rhetoric but also on policies, particularly the PA’s stipends to Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis.
The latest exchange highlights the sharp divide between Israeli officials and the Palestinian Authority at a time of heightened tensions in the region. With Abbas reiterating his readiness to reclaim authority over Gaza — an area he lost to Hamas in 2007 — and Israel dismissing such statements as disingenuous, the prospect of reconciliation or meaningful negotiations remains dim.
For Israeli officials, the imagery of the “key” was not merely symbolic but represented what they view as a persistent refusal to accept Israel’s permanence. Both Sa’ar’s remarks and the ministry’s statement underscored a unified stance: Israel will continue rejecting gestures it interprets as threats to its sovereignty and existence. See, More, Here>>>>
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