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Netanyahu balks as Obama speech invokes ’67 borders
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason May 20, 2011 06:20am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Friday, May 20, 2011 12:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | President Obama’s proposals for resuscitating Middle East peace talks drew sharply negative responses from the Israeli government and the Islamist Hamas movement and set up a potentially frosty encounter between the U.S. president and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who will visit the White House on Friday.
Netanyahu appeared to outright reject Obama’s call that the boundaries in place on the eve of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war serve as a starting point for negotiations, calling the proposed borders “indefensible” and suggesting that the plan would weaken Israeli security and put Jewish settlers at risk.
As Obama spoke, an Israeli government committee approved the construction of more than 1,500 new homes in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, whose 1967 annexation by Israel is not internationally recognized. The plan provoked condemnation from Palestinians and defiance from hard-line Israelis.
“Jerusalem is not up for negotiation and will not be divided,” said Yair Gabbai, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party who serves on the committee that approved the housing.
Obama’s decision to outline a new White House approach to peace talks appeared to have startled Israelis and Palestinians and even some of the president’s advisers. Indeed, only Obama and three or four aides knew precisely what the president would say before he delivered the speech — parts of which were being altered as it was being put into the teleprompter, administration officials said. |
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