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 ...
Forgive my French, please.
If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.
Do it!
Progressives of all stripes are anti-American and anti-Israel.
You tell me. It seems not unlikely.
Yeah. I do believe that’s a left-handed cigarette. Hand-rolled for sure.
"Did someone say 'racist'...?"
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