Israeli delegation did not 'boycott' President Obama's speech (mainly on the Middle East), ... They were simply not there!

"... But having come back from a few days of UN-related events in New York, some of which prominently featured other major Middle East peace players, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Israel's decision to not send Netanyahu to New York this week was notable. And seemingly not fully explained by the Sukkot holiday.

And even the exceptions seemed only to add to the sense that Israel was deliberately ducking a major profile in New York this week. Israeli President Shimon Peres appeared on a panel with Fayyad hosted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative Tuesday. (Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in the audience, but ducked in and out of Washington over the weekend with no public appearances.) And Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon attended a Palestinian donors conference with Fayyad. (Although the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has denied Ayalon's account of Fayyad walking out of the meeting, and accused Ayalon of "distorting the facts.")

But compared with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bracing speech to the UN General Assembly last year, and the national leader representation many other countries sent, one gets the sense that Israel chose to keep a relatively low profile in New York this year, one not fully explained by Sukkot, and perhaps having more to do with reported Israeli plans not to extend a partial West Bank settlement moratorium due to expire next week.

"I think ... a purposeful decision was made that sending the principal - Netanyahu- to an unfriendly forum, the UN, during the last days of the settlement freeze was nothing but trouble," a prominent Washington Middle East hand told me. "If Bibi had good news to deliver on the freeze, he would have been here."

"There are plenty of wonderful places to celebrate Sukkot in New York," he added.  

Indeed, and Ayalon and Peres presumably found them. Then again, Netanyahu was not the only world leader who chose to skip UNGA this year. As of last week, Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not planning to attend UNGA, a Brazilian diplomat said. And I believe Turkey was represented by President Abdullah Gul and not Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week."