“While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines”!
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu acknowledged the differences that divide them even as they emphasized areas of agreement over the so-called peace process, Iran and democratic changes in the Middle East, following their White House meeting Friday.
Netanyahu flatly rejected any return to the 1967 lines, the basis – along with agreed land swaps – for a deal with the Palestinians as laid out in a speech by Obama Thursday.
Obama’s formulation referencing 1967 has been criticized by Israeli officials and advocates, and created greater tension as the two leaders, long perceived to be at odds, headed into their meeting, the Jerusalem Post said. The private parley lasted over two hours, longer than they were scheduled to spend one-on-one, as the men discussed a range of sensitive issues at a time of rapid change in the Middle East.
“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.”
Following the meeting, a senior Israeli source said of Obama’s formula: “It’s not going to happen.”
A senior White House adviser, however, stressed in background conversations Friday that the US had not intended to imply that Israel would have to go back to the 1967 lines, but rather that they would be adjusted to take into account security needs and new facts on the ground as part of negotiations.
In his statement at the Oval Office, 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 the US and Israel.
Obama echoed Netanyahu’s last point, using stronger language to dismiss the prospect of Israel talking to Hamas than even a day earlier in his own Middle East address.
