US News

Netanyahu resists key component of Obama’s path to Mideast peace

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday expressed frank opposition to President Barack Obama’s version of a path toward Middle East peace, saying Israel cannot return to borders based on 1967 lines.

“I think for there to be peace, the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities,” Netanyahu said in a tense joint press appearance with Obama in the Oval Office. “The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines, because these — these lines are indefensible.”

The Israeli leader said those borders — which existed before the Six-Day War, when Egypt, Syria and Jordan launched a surprise attack on Israel — “don’t take into account certain changes that have taken place on the ground,” adding the borders “were not the boundaries of peace, they were the boundaries of repeated wars.”

The result of the Six-Day War was a decisive Israeli victory that left Israel in control of disputed territories such as the Golan Heights and Gaza Strip. A return to the 1967 borders would mean Israel relinquishing certain territories, a position the country has opposed.

Obama’s border proposal was a key part of his major speech Thursday on the Middle East and North Africa. The address immediately drew a cool response from Israel, with Netanyahu’s office releasing a statement following the remarks calling on Washington to reaffirm “commitments” made to Israel by former President George W. Bush in 2004.

“Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines, which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centres in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) beyond those lines,” the office said Thursday, according to AFP.

Reiterating assurances from his speech, Obama said Friday that Israel must be guaranteed of its own security.

“Obviously, there are some differences between us in the precise formulations and language, and that’s going to happen between friends,” the president said. “But what we are in complete accord about is that a true peace can only occur if the ultimate resolution allows Israel to defend itself against threats, and that Israel’s security will remain paramount in US evaluations of any prospective peace deal.”

Obama also called on the Palestinians to “explain how they can credibly engage in serious peace negotiations” following the recent reconciliation between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, an organization Obama said has “resorted to terror” and “refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.”

The US president said he and Netanyahu also discussed the pro-democracy movements that have recently swept through the Middle East.

“We agreed that there is a moment of opportunity that can be seized as a consequence of the Arab Spring, but also acknowledged that there are significant perils as well,” Obama said.

He said the Oval Office talks also covered his administration’s efforts to press Syria and the regime of President Bashar al Assad to end its brutal crackdown on the two-month revolt against the Baath party’s nearly five decades of rule. In addition, Obama reiterated his concerns about the threat Iran poses to Israel, the region and the world.

“We also discussed the hypocrisy of Iran suggesting that it somehow supports democratization in the Middle East when, in fact, they first showed the repressive nature of that regime when they responded to the (sic) own peaceful protest that took place inside Iran almost two years ago,” Obama said.

Friday’s White House meeting and Thursday’s speech came during a week spent focused on the Middle East. The president met with King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday and is slated to deliver an address Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a major pro-Israel lobby group.