President Obama. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – US President Barack Obama summarized his analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his final address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel…[and if] Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land,” Obama said in a portion of his speech, calling for a “course correction” of nations on the path to “global integration.”

In Obama’s eight years in office, his administration has not succeeded in their efforts to produce a peace agreement.

Israel was not the only nation critiqued by Obama.

Russia was derided for using force to return to its “former glory” and fueling “nationalistic fervor.”

“The mindset of sectarianism, and extremism, and bloodletting, and retribution that has been taking place will not be quickly reversed,” Obama said. “And if we are honest, we understand that no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long.”

Obama said that for global integration to succeed, the world “must reject any forms of fundamentalism, or racism, or a belief in ethnic superiority that makes our traditional identities irreconcilable with modernity.  Instead, we need to embrace the tolerance that results from respect of all human beings.”