Friday, May 20, 2011

Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Barack Obama's vision for the borders of a future Palestinian state

Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Barack Obama's vision for the borders of a future Palestinian state.netanyahu, israel, isreal, rapture 21st may, israel map - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday bluntly rejected President Barack Obama's vision for the borders of a future Palestinian state, opening up one of the deepest divides in years between Washington and the Jewish state.

In an unusually sharp rebuke to Israel's closest ally, Netanyahu told Obama his endorsement of a long-standing Palestinian demand to go back to Israel's 1967 boundaries -- meaning big concessions of occupied land -- would leave Israel "indefensible."

Peace based on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle East reality," an unsmiling Netanyahu said as Obama listened intently beside him in the Oval Office.

He insisted that Israel was willing to make compromises for peace, but made clear he had major differences with Washington over how to advance the long-stalled peace process.

Netanyahu's firm resistance now raises the question of how hard Obama will push for concessions he is unlikely to get, and whether the peace vision he laid out on Thursday will ever get off the ground.

Despite assurances of friendship by both leaders, this week's events also appeared to herald tense months ahead for U.S.-Israeli relations, even as the Arab world goes through political tumult and Palestinians prepare a unilateral bid this fall for statehood at the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Obama said he reiterated to Netanyahu the peace "principles" he offered on Thursday in a policy speech on Middle East political upheaval.

The goal, he said, "has to be a secure Israeli state, a Jewish state, but continuous security with a completely functioning and effective Palestinian state."

Obama on Thursday embraced a long-sought goal by the Palestinians: that the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu, who heads a right-leaning, pro-settler coalition, said, "We can't go back to those indefensible lines."

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