WASHINGTON — President Obama, delivering a major speech on the Middle East and North Africa, Thursday called for the borders of Israel and any future Palestinian state to be based on 1967 lines with “mutually agreed swaps.”
His proposal immediately drew a cool response from Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement while Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called an “urgent” meeting of Palestinian leaders.
“Negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine,” Obama said in his 45-minute speech at the US State Department.
Obama said Israel would not be expected to give back any territory until it could be guaranteed of its own security.
“Every state has the right to self-defense, and Israel must be able to defend itself — by itself — against any threat,” he said.
Obama’s speech, in which he also announced a significant economic aid package for Egypt, came just one day before he was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and two days after he held talks with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Netanyahu’s office immediately issued a statement calling on Washington to reaffirm “commitments” made to Israel by former President George W. Bush in 2004, AFP reported.
“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 statement said.
“Those commitments also ensure Israel’s well-being as a Jewish state by making clear that Palestinian refugees will settle in a future Palestinian state rather than in Israel.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations, issued a statement saying a return to 1967 borders as a basis for negotiations “is a non-starter, when at least half of the Palestinian rulers are committed to Israel’s destruction.”
The 1967 borders refer to those that existed before the Six-Day War, when Egypt, Syria and Jordan launched a surprise attack on Israel. The result 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.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for an “urgent” meeting of Palestinian leaders immediately after Obama finished speaking.
The Hamas faction, which does not recognize Israel, quickly issued a statement saying Obama must take “concrete steps” not issue “slogans.”
In his wide-ranging remarks, Obama outlined the last six months of change in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya, highlighted the death of Usama bin Laden – whom he described as “no martyr; he was a mass murderer” – and said America must “use all our influence to encourage reform in the region.”
One cornerstone of the US approach, he said, “relates to the pursuit of peace. For decades, the conflict between Israelis and Arabs has cast a shadow over the region.”
A lasting peace, he declared “will involve two states for two peoples. Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people; each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace.”
Obama said that while borders and security alone would not resolve the conflict — the significant issues of the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees remain, he noted — it would be “a foundation to resolve those two issues in a way that is just and fair, and that respects the rights and aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians.”
He also said the recent reconciliation of the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions raises “profound and legitimate questions for Israel – how can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist. In the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question.”
Returning repeatedly to the subject of political reform and human rights in the region, Obama said it was necessary for people to have food on the table and jobs in the wake of recent protests that have swept through northern Africa and the Middle East and removed the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.
“Together, we must help them recover from the disruption of their democratic upheaval,” he said, in announcing the US will forgive up to $1 billion of Egypt’s debt to give the strife-torn country an opportunity to rebuild its economy.
Washington will also guarantee $1 billion in additional borrowing for Egypt to finance infrastructure and job creation, he said.
“We do not want a democratic Egypt to be saddled by the debts of the past,” Obama added, saying Washington was working with Congress to create Enterprise Funds to invest in Tunisia and Egypt.
In addition, he said the US would work with the EU to facilitate more trade within the region.
As for Syria, Obama said President Bashar al Assad should either embrace democracy in his nation or “get out of the way.” On Wednesday, Washington sanctioned Assad and six other senior members of his government in the wake of its violent crackdown on political protests.