The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, took off his diplomatic gloves last week. The briefing he presented Aug. 29 to members of the UN Security Council was a biting moral and legal indictment of Israel.

Mladenov accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of conducting a de facto one-state policy between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. He complained that Israel was making a mockery of the July 1 report issued by the Middle East Quartet on Israel's systematic demolition of Palestinian homes and illegal construction of West Bank settlements and outposts. Mladenov stressed that there was no difference between Jewish settlements erected on “state lands” with the Israeli government’s blessing and those built without permits on private Palestinian land. He equated a new construction plan in the Jewish settlement town of Kiryat Arba to an expansion of construction in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s reaction was no less harsh. He adopted the approach of his rival-partner, HaBayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett. Netanyahu does not apologize and no longer makes any effort to wrap his hawkish policy in dove feathers. The harsher the criticism of Israel, the more aggressive is his response. His brief reaction was crammed with demagoguery, lies and self-victimization.

For example, he said Mladenov’s “absurd” claim that Jewish construction in Jerusalem is illegal was like saying that American construction in Washington or French building in Paris are illegal. Pure demagoguery. Did the Americans or the French unilaterally annex to their capitals thousands of acres and people in complete contravention of UN resolutions? Is a Jewish-American who resides in the eastern part of Washington not entitled to register property in western Washington in his name? Is France signatory to an international agreement that commits it to discuss sovereignty over disputed Parisian districts?