Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday he was prepared to make compromises to peace but he rejected President Barack Obama’s proposal that Israel return to its 1967 borders.
Obama and Netanyahu met at the White House a day after the U.S. president endorsed a longstanding Palestinian demand on the borders for their future state.
In remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Obama said he had reiterated the principles he had laid out on Thursday.
Netanyahu flatly rejected any return to the 1967 borders, the basis – along with agreed land swaps – for a deal with the Palestinians as laid out in a speech by Obama the day before.
“While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines,” Netanyahu said, sitting alongside Obama in the Oval Office. “These lines are indefensible, because they don’t take into account certain changes that have taken place on the ground, demographic changes.”
Netanyahu also ruled out any return of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper or that Israel would negotiate with Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by both US and Israel.
“The only peace that will endure is one that is based on reality, on unshakable facts. I think for there to be peace, the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities. The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines. Because these lines are indefensible. Because they don’t take into account certain changes that have taken place on the ground, demographic changes that have taken place over the last 44 years.
Remember that before 1967, Israel was all of 9 miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington beltway. These were not the boundaries of peace. They were the boundaries of repeated wars because the attack on Israel was so attractive for them. We can’t go back to those indefensible lines and we’re going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan. . . .
We’ve been around for almost four thousand years. We’ve experienced struggle and suffering like no other people. We’ve gone through expulsions, pogroms and massacres and the murder of millions.
But I can say that even at the dearth, even at the nadir of the valley of death, we never lost hope and we never lost our dream of reestablishing a sovereign state in our ancient homeland, the land of Israel.
And now it falls on my shoulders as the Prime Minister of Israel, at a time of extraordinary instability and uncertainty in the middle east to work with you and fashion a peace that will ensure Israel’s security and will not jeopardize it’s survival.
Wild Thing’s comment…….
I LOVE when BiBi lectured Obama on Hamas.
Way to go Bibi! Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person!
As an American, it was embarrassing to watch the president of the US get lectured on Middle Eastern affairs. But then, that’s what happens when an inept community organizer with “0″ leadership ability comes up against a true leader, a man who was a combat soldier and a commander in the elite special forces unit of the IDF. A man who has had for work and fight for his survival, and the survival of his people, all his life.
The GOPhers have just been handed at least 25% of the Jewish votes in Florida and New York in 18 months come Election Day… Watch the GOPhers blow this opportunity! “Don’t Tread On Me!”
IN GOD & ISRAEL WE TRUST!
I wouldn’t be so sure about your prediction, Darth.
There is still a lot of time between now and Nov. 2012, and the damage control people on The One’s staff will more than cover this incident.
Combine this President’s attitude toward Israel, with Jimmy Carter’s, and you can easily see how willing both of them are to be duped by the Arab nations.
It is really shameful, that these two, among others choose to turn thir backs on the only thriving Democracy, in the Middle East, at the cost attmpting to placate our sworn enemies.
I truly hate that we have the low life in office.