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• Israel PM alarmed at new US stance on Palestine peace deal
• Netanyahu seeks return to George Bush’s 2004 commitment
The US president, Barack Obama, and Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, at the White House in September 2010. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters
Barack Obama is to meet Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, at the White House in what is predicted to be a tense meeting after the US president’s speech in which he called for Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders in any peace agreement.
Netanyahu issued a strongly worded statement shortly after Obama finished speaking on Thursday, containing an unusually clear rebuke to the president. “Netanyahu expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of US commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both houses of Congress,” it said. “Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines.”
He was referring to a letter signed by George Bush, which gave US backing to Israel’s claim to retain the big settlement blocks in the West Bank when drawing borders between it and a future Palestinian state.
Netanyahu was also alarmed at Obama’s reference to a future Palestinian state’s borders with Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Israel has long argued that it must keep a military presence along the Jordan River as a security buffer. Obama appeared to reject that.
According to reports in the Israeli media, Netanyahu considered an even harsher response to Obama’s speech. What was issued was a “softened” version.
An alarm sounded within the Israeli establishment as soon as it was announced that Obama would deliver a speech on events in the Middle East just days before Netanyahu was scheduled to address Congress. They feared he would set out his vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, thus severely limiting Netanyahu’s room for manoeuvre when his turn comes on Tuesday.
But consultations between Washington and Jerusalem reassured Israeli officials that there would be no game-changing element in Obama’s speech. Now they feel they were misled.
The issue of 1967 has figured large in speculation over what Netanyahu might say in his Congress speech, and whether he would mention the key date. To do so would be a significant step and might help unblock the talks, but it would concede an important red line for Israel and cause the prime minister severe difficulties with his fragile rightwing coalition.
In the event, Obama uttered the numbers first, thereby possibly backing Netanyahu into a corner.
“Obama’s speech comes as a major blow to [Netanyahu's] policy,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper. “First because of [Obama's] explicit determination that the future border will be based on the 1967 borders. Netanyahu knows that if an agreement is ever signed, these will in fact be the borders – but he believed, and still believes, that ambiguity on this issue served him best.”
Ben Caspit, a Ma’ariv columnist, wrote: “[Netanyahu] has heard, for the first time in history, an American president explicitly mention the 1967 borders as the basis for an arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians … This president, who now looks like a strong president, has crushed Netanyahu’s worldview, according to which there is no partner … [Obama] looks straight at Israel, looks it right in the eye, and tells it the truth to its face: the US is forever committed to the security and prosperity of the state of Israel but the US is not interested in continuing to lie to Israel and to itself. Everyone knows what the solution is, everyone is familiar with the formula, here it is before us. Let Israel kindly sign here, here and here, and start implementing.”
An analysis by Simon Shiffer, also in Yedioth, said: “No amount of whitewashing can succeed in changing the bitter taste of the pill served by Obama to the Israeli prime minister … Obama is the first American president who has defined in such a clear and geographic manner the outline of the arrangement that is supposed to end the conflict, in his opinion.”
The irony for many is that most of the international community has accepted for a long time that the pre-1967 lines must serve as the basis for any future negotiated border.
A senior official in Netanyahu’s bureau was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that, following Obama’s speech, there was a sense in Jerusalem “that Washington fails to understand reality”.
In terms of what happens next, there is no clear indication of how the US intends to follow up Obama’s statement with action to force the parties back to the negotiating table. That may become clearer as the two leaders meet on Friday, and in a series of speeches by both over the next few days. But few people anticipate a return to talks any time soon.
The Palestinians have yet to respond to Obama’s speech. The president, Mahmoud Abbas, is consulting Palestinian and Arab leaders. They will not be happy with Obama’s dismissal of their efforts to win recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations general assembly in September.
Meanwhile the construction of approximately 1,500 new housing units in East Jerusalem settlements was approved by a government committee on Thursday, and permits for a further 300-plus units in West Bank settlements were approved by the defence minister, Ehud Barak.
source : guardian
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