Suggesting no progress toward peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly told President Barack Obama on Friday that Israel would not withdraw to 1967 borders to help make way for an adjacent Palestinian State.
Netanyahu’s unusually sharp rebuke toward Israel’s closest ally threatened Obama’s vision for the border concession that would create a future Palestinian state.
In a speech on the Middle East and North Africa on Thursday, the president expressed hope that Israel would return to the boundaries that existed before the 1967 war, which gave Israel control of the West Bank and Gaza.
The proposal also included mutually agreed-to land swaps that would accommodate existing Israeli settlements.
After a private meeting between the two leaders at the White House that went much longer than scheduled, Netanyahu told Obama that he shares the president’s view for spreading democracy in the Middle East, but going back to the 1967 boundaries would leave Israel “indefensible.”
“Remember that, before 1967, Israel was all of nine miles wide,” an unsmiling Netanyahu told Obama in the Oval Office at the White House. “It was half the width of the Washington Beltway. And these were not the boundaries of peace; they were the boundaries of repeated wars, because the attack on Israel was so attractive.
Despite getting into one of the deepest splits in years between Washington and Jerusalem, Obama said such disputes are bound to happen “between friends.” The two leaders reaffirmed their mutual desire to get to peace and downplayed their disagreements.
Netanyahu said, “We may have differences here and there, but I think there’s an overall direction that we wish to work together to pursue a real, genuine peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors; a peace that is defensible.”
While speaking in front of reporters with Netanyahu, Obama made no mentions of his border demand, and neither was there any sign of resolution of the many barriers that exist between Israel and the Palestinians.
Nevertheless, both heads of state agreed that their relationship is “sound and will continue,” and they will work out their differences.
Showing some common ground, Obama and Netanyahu stressed that Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, is not a reliable partner in peace negotiations.
Netanyahu said his nation could not talk with a newly constituted Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. He said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has to choose between making peace with Israel and continuing its deal with Hamas.
