Posted on 05/20/2011 7:56:55 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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 .. .
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, ..
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bozo looks stoned
To Perdition with Obama. Anything else I have to say will get my post deleted.
Bibi was hot. The other guy looks like he should be sellin’ on a street corner.
Who is your daddy, Bambi? Little punk.
“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.”
No opinion here from the Obama flunky who wrote this.
I meant pre-1967 in dog years..
LOL!
Surely, MOSSAD, or any other Israeli intel element, has some dirt on that dumbass. It would be soooo nice to see them start leaking all sorts of crazy stuff and annihilate this ridiculous excuse for an administration.
Nice to know that Yahoonews also likes to disguise editorials as news. Also nice to know that there are only Jewish settlers, and that even residents of Jerusalem are called “settlers”. And my, my. Both the putative Palestinian state and Israel will be “contiguous,” so I guess Eilat will be part of a Palestinian state, and so much for shipping via the Indian Ocean, since the Arab Spring in Egypt has pretty much put paid to our ever using the Suez Canal. We’ll be securely starved out.
So, is the White House now trying to blame Bibi for Obomba’s gaffe? At this point, Israel needs to consider this administration their enemy, which hurts me to write.
They have been from the start. Listen to the rhetoric coming from the Left. Ever since September 11, 2001 the jihadists have been the Left's Best Friends Forever. I'm surprised that anybody is surprised.
Obama shot his “I” out with a Bibi gun.
Schooled ‘im!
Damn those Izzies! How dare they insult the President by fighting for their lives .....!
</s>
Nummnutz.
Is that a J in Obozo’s hand in that pic?
Spot on contrast! Best post of the week. :)
Saw a photo of him at some "shovel-ready" ribbon-cutting, he had a shovel in his hand and was wearing work shoes and blue bib overalls and was lifting a shovel-load. I swear he looked like a full-timer.
Thank God it was the friend who did it. When Khruschev pulled off a similar coup against an ill-prepared Jack Kennedy in early 1961, we nearly found ourselves in a shooting war 18 months later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.