Netanyahu Tells Obama Israel Can’t Return to ‘Indefensible’ 1967 Borders
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on 20, 2011. Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected President Barack Obama’s call to use the 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations with the Palestinians, calling those lines “indefensible.”
Israel “can’t go back” to the boundaries that prevailed before the 1967 Middle East war, Netanyahu said at the White House, with the U.S. president sitting next to him. “A peace founded on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle Eastern reality.”
Obama told reporters that he and Netanyahu “discussed in depth” the principles he laid out yesterday in a speech on the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the differences they have. He reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s security, saying “a true peace can only occur if the ultimate resolution allows Israel to defend itself against threats.”
Netanyahu arrived in Washington from Israel hours after Obama declared support for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip using borders from before the 1967 war as a starting point for talks with negotiated alterations. He also called for demilitarization of Palestinian territory.
The two leaders said the reconciliation accord Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed this month with Hamas - - classified as a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. -- threaten any opportunity for discussions.
“Israel cannot negotiate with a Palestinian government that is backed by Hamas,” Netanyahu said, calling the group the “Palestinian version of al-Qaeda.”
Extended Discussion
Palestinian leaders, who have said they will not renew peace negotiations with Israel unless Netanyahu stops construction in Jewish settlements, saw no reason for optimism after the meeting in Washington.
Netanyahu “looked into Obama’s eyes at the White House and told him bluntly, ‘I will not accept your vision of the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders,’” the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, said in a telephone interview from his home in the West Bank town of Jericho.
The meeting, originally scheduled to last about 50 minutes, was a “prolonged and extremely useful conversation,” Obama said. The two continued the discussions at a working lunch.
No Talks
“What I saw was an Israeli prime minister who was interested in paying back an American president for willfully giving a public speech on the eve of the meeting that all but ensured a significant difference of opinion,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator who is now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington. The two men took the opportunity to disagree publicly now because “there’s no peace process and no prospect for a peace process,” he said.
Obama’s speech yesterday marked the first time a U.S. president has explicitly backed using the 1967 boundaries as the starting point for talks that would have Israel cede control of land to Palestinians in return for peace and security. Obama offered no steps to restart the stalled peace talks.
He said a deal along 1967 lines, which has been the basis for off-and-on talks for 20 years, needs to include land exchanges to allow Israel to retain major settlement blocs in return for granting offsetting land to Palestinians.
Disagreements
The Israeli leader indicated before reaching Washington that he expected the talks to focus more on his disagreements with Obama than on resurrecting the peace process.
“There are some things that cannot be swept under the carpet,” Netanyahu told reporters on the flight from Israel.
Obama today said that Israel’s concerns can be met.
“I think that it is possible for us to shape a deal that allows Israel to secure itself,” Obama said.
“We have differences here and there,” Netanyahu said today, “but I think there’s an overall direction that we wish to work together to pursue a real genuine peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.”
Obama is scheduled to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying organization, May 22 in Washington. Netanyahu is set to speak to the group the next day. The Israeli leader will also address a joint session of Congress.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stalled shortly after they resumed in September 2010 when Netanyahu refused to extend a 10- month settlement-building freeze that Palestinians made a condition for talks to continue.
Obama’s language on the borders was an incremental move, not a break with what has been U.S. policy, said Daniel Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt. He said that while it has long been assumed that 1967 borders will form the basis for an agreement, “when you finally get an articulation of U.S. policy, it means something.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Washington at jferziger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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