100 Years after pro-Israel Balfour Declaration, UK's Palestine state speech at UN; Netanyahu stunned

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, addressing the UN General Assembly, declared the UK's formal recognition of Palestinian statehood must serve as a “spur” to urgent action, not merely a symbolic political gesture. Cooper framed the move as both an “act of urgency and principle” and a response to the collapsing prospects for a two-state solution due to ongoing bloodshed, famine, terrorism, hostage-taking, settlement expansion, and settler violence. Cooper pressed for a ceasefire, release of hostages, and restoration of humanitarian aid, and urged Israel not to retaliate with settlement expansion.