Israel remains committed to a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Yair Lapid is expected to tell the United Nations General Assembly when he delivers his first ever address to that global body on Thursday morning. It been many years since an Israeli Prime Minister spoke of two-states when addressing the UN, according to sources close to Lapid.

In his address, Lapid will explain that “separating from the Palestinians has to be part of the nation’s vision.” 

With that in mind, Israel “will not do anything that would endanger the security of Israel or the security of the citizens of Israel even by an inch, but separation from the Palestinians should be part of the political vision, part of the concept of hope out of strength,” the sources stated.

Lapid believes in the importance of dialogue, even with those he disagrees, but despite the words he plans to deliver at the UN, he does not intend to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The two men spoke briefly in August, when Lapid called Abbas with good wishes for the Eid al-Adha holiday. Comments such as the one Abbas made in Germany in which he said that Israel had committed 50 Holocausts against the Palestinians, make such conversations more difficult, the sources said.

Lapid is also expected to devote time in his speech to Iran. He will emphasize that Israel won’t allow Tehran to become a nuclear state.

“If it is necessary,” and “this is agreed on with the Americans. We will act on our own. We do not have to update anyone, and we do not need to ask permission from anyone,” the source said. 

Lapid will also put forward an alternative path to reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) otherwise known as the Iran deal.

Israel had opposed that deal, which warned emboldened Iran and would not halt it nuclear program. it supported former US President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the deal in 2018 and has opposed US President Joe Biden’s push to revive the deal.