Netanyahu to Abbas: Let's Meet Now

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s address to the U.N. General Assembly with an insistence to go back to direct peace talks, rejecting Abbas's bid for statehood through the Security Council. In his speech, Netanyahu said that the Palestinians must “first make peace with Israel, then get their state.” He also said that previous Israeli concessions did not “calm the militant Islamic storm that threatens us,” and only brought militants “closer to us.” Netanyahu said that once a peace agreement is signed, Israel will be the first country to welcome the Palestinians as a full member of the U.N.