it is difficult to hear her audio at the moment because of the plane s engines. they cannot hear us at the moment because of that amount of noise. the families of shane bauer and josh fattal and sarah shourd did release a statement following this release of, again, the two u.s. hikers. they had said in part, quote, today can only be described as the best day of our lives. we have waited for nearly 26 months for this moment. and the joy and relief we feel at shane and josh s long-awaited freedom knows no bounds. we all want nothing more than to wrap shane and josh in our arms. catch up on two lost years, and make a new beginning for them all, and for all of us. for now we would like the thank his majesty, the sultan of oman and his envoy. their lawyer as well. that s just part of the statement that came from the
that we seek. the question is, how do we reach that goal? and i am convinced that there is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. peace is hard work. peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the united nations. if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. ultimately, it is the israelis and the palestinians who must live side by side. immediately after that speech, the president met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who called the american position a, quote, badge of honor. the president meets this evening with president abbas. that brings me to my colleague, wolf blitzer, reporting today from new york. hi there, wolf. let s talk about this a little bit. assuming the u.s. uses its veto in the u.n. security council, what could happen? what are the alternatives here? the u.s. is hoping, randi, as you know it s not going to have to use the veto any time soon. they re hoping they can work on some sort o
for state hood. this hour, the president is expected to meet with palestinian authority president abbas. he held a separate meeting just a little while ago with benjamin netanyahu. let s bring in our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. she s covering this from new york. the president also delivered a major address before the u.n. general assembly. that s rig, wolf. the palestinians continue pressing their case here at the united nations and it was the most dramatic issue the president addressed in his speech today with repeated the theme, peace is hard. the president trumpeted progress at the end of this year, america s military operation in iraq will be over. osama bin laden is gone. and warned of challenges ahead. where we stand with the syrian people or their oppressors. what so many were listening for was this. we seek a future where palestinians live in a sovereign sate of their own. how would we explain his opposition to the palestinian push