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Netanyahu Responds Icily to Obama Remarks

(New York Times) Ethan Bronner - President Obama's endorsement on Thursday of using the 1967 boundaries as the baseline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute - the first by an American president - prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to push back. Netanyahu said that while he appreciated Mr. Obama's commitment to peace, he "expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of American commitments made to Israel in 2004 which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress." Those commitments came in a letter from President George W. Bush which stated, among other things, that "it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," another way of describing the 1967 boundaries. Mr. Netanyahu, who is to meet with Mr. Obama at the White House on Friday, added that the commitments "relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines, which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines." Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN and a confidant of Mr. Netanyahu's, said Mr. Obama's speech was "a radical shift in United States policy towards Israel." He said the 2004 letter was endorsed not only by a strong bipartisan majority but by Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator. "By mentioning the 1967 lines today, President Obama is going back on what had been an American commitment less than a decade ago."
2011-05-20 00:00:00
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