Via MCS
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told President Obama on Friday that he shared his vision for a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and then promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept the two sides at an impasse for years.
Sitting at Mr. Obama’s side in the Oval Office, leaning toward him and at times looking him directly in the eye, the Israeli leader bluntly rejected compromises of the sort Mr. Obama had outlined the day before in hopes of reviving a moribund peace process. Mr. Obama, who had sought to emphasize Israel’s concerns in his remarks moments earlier, stared back.
In his public remarks, delivered after a meeting that lasted more than two hours, Mr. Netanyahu warned against “a peace based on illusions,” seemingly leaving the prospect for new talks as remote as they have been since the last significant American push for peace collapsed last fall. Officials said that the meeting was productive, but that there were no plans for formal negotiations or any mechanisms in place to push the two sides forward.
Most significant among his public objections, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would not accept a return to the boundaries that existed before the war in 1967 gave it control of the West Bank and Gaza, calling them indefensible.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama said for the first time that those borders should be the starting point for negotiations to create a Palestinian state, though he emphasized that they would be adjusted to some degree through land swaps to account for Israeli settlements. Mr. Netanyahu simply ignored that nuance — as did many conservative critics here in Washington — further exacerbating tensions with the administration.
[READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES]
River to Sea- 21. May, 2011
EDITORS NOTE:
President Obama has been sitting in that seat, where there are many guns to his head forcing his hand. And so he compromises and deals with the reality, practically as it is and not as he wishes it was.
Frankly this may be the best posture to take, for a revolutionary wouldn’t last 2 minutes in that seat. Those guns are dirty, blazing, and full of the nastiest bullets you ever saw!
Lack of morals notwithstanding, Zionists are a truly amazing bunch.
But there comes a time when President Obama will have to come down on one side of the fence or the other.
Staring matches with Bibi are exciting to see, but what really matters, and measures the effect of the staring match, is what comes of it. Who blinks first!
Obama’s only hope against this bully this time around, is to draw his line in the sand where he has drawn it, on the 1967 boundaries, stand his ground, and stare back without blinking.
To waiver is to lose the entire match, set and game.
This is winner-take-all, showdown-poker!
***
Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told President Obama on Friday that he shared his vision for a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and then promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept the two sides at an impasse for years.
Sitting at Mr. Obama’s side in the Oval Office, leaning toward him and at times looking him directly in the eye, the Israeli leader bluntly rejected compromises of the sort Mr. Obama had outlined the day before in hopes of reviving a moribund peace process. Mr. Obama, who had sought to emphasize Israel’s concerns in his remarks moments earlier, stared back.
In his public remarks, delivered after a meeting that lasted more than two hours, Mr. Netanyahu warned against “a peace based on illusions,” seemingly leaving the prospect for new talks as remote as they have been since the last significant American push for peace collapsed last fall. Officials said that the meeting was productive, but that there were no plans for formal negotiations or any mechanisms in place to push the two sides forward.
Most significant among his public objections, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would not accept a return to the boundaries that existed before the war in 1967 gave it control of the West Bank and Gaza, calling them indefensible.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama said for the first time that those borders should be the starting point for negotiations to create a Palestinian state, though he emphasized that they would be adjusted to some degree through land swaps to account for Israeli settlements. Mr. Netanyahu simply ignored that nuance — as did many conservative critics here in Washington — further exacerbating tensions with the administration.
[READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES]
Uprooted Palestinian
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