Do you think he made a major error in his speech? WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu lectured President Barack Obama in his own office, warning him not to chase "illusions" of Middle East peace and opening a deep rift in US-Israel ties. In a dramatic Oval Office appearance on Friday, after 90 minutes of talks, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphatically vowed Israel would never return to its 1967 borders and laid down a set of non-negotiable conditions for peace talks. The exchange, which left hopes for Obama's peace drive more remote than ever, came a day after the US president called on Israel to accept a return to territorial lines in place before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with mutual land swaps with Palestinians to frame a secure peace. But Netanyahu seized on the notion that he was being asked to return solely to Israel's 1967 footprint, which he said was nine miles wide in places and half the size of the "Beltway" highway surrounding Washington. "While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines -- because these lines are indefensible," Netanyahu said, looking Obama squarely in the eye. Israelis argue that returning to the former border configuration would leave Israeli population centers vulnerable and mean uprooting hundreds of thousands of settlers from homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu did not however mention the second part of Obama's stipulation -- namely that land swaps between Israel and the Palestinians, would change those 1967 lines to ensure two secure, contiguous states. The White House insisted that it had never said that Israel should return to a narrow definition of its 1967 territorial lines. Asked whether Netanyahu was willfully misinterpreting Obama's remarks, White House spokesman Jay Carney said such an observation was "interesting." Privately, White House officials appeared infuriated by Netanyahu's combative approach, which even included a lecture for Obama on the historic struggles of the Jewish people.
translation we took some land and we are not giving it back. also how dare they talk smack! They got a shitty hand to be talking like that. No one likes them in the region. We are giving them money for free. If any one is straining the usa, it is the isrealis.
It's really nothing more than political theater. Funny how earlier in the week Netanyahu indicated a willingness to give up Samaria and swaths of Judea, which would be in accordance with the long adhered to 1967 borders: http://www.indynewsisrael.com/netanyahu-knesset-speech-indicates-surrender-to-western-pressure Then later - as soon as Obama makes a rather innocuous reference to the 1967 borders with mutual swaps - Netanyahu takes this opportunity to make this big kerfuffle, knowing it will feed the Republican party and summarily delay any peace negotiations. Rightwing politics par excellence. In actuality the beef isn't the 1967 borders. The Likud party is more concerned with the Palestinian's so-called right to return, where Palestinian refugees displaced before the 6 Day War can 'return' pretty much anywhere they desire. Hence why BiBi said Monday: “The root of the conflict has never been the absence of a Palestinian state. The root of the conflict always was and remains the refusal to recognize that Israel is a Jewish state. This is not a dispute about 1967, it is a conflict about 1948, about the very existence of the State of Israel” But even then his argument is a bit dishonest. The PLO has recognized Israel how many times now? At most they have Hamas to blame for further delay. But don't be fooled by rightwing goons. As it was put by Nahum Goldman, former president of the World Jewish Congress: "[Israel] has rejected every settlement plan devised by her friends and by her enemies. She has seemingly no other object than to preserve the status quo while adding territory piece by piece."
