Obama to
Israel -- Time Is Running Out
Bloomberg
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White
House
tomorrow, President Barack Obama will tell him that his country could face a bleak future -- one of international isolation and demographic disaster -- if he refuses to endorse a U.S.-drafted framework agreement for peace with the Palestinians. Obama will warn Netanyahu that time is running out for Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy. And the president will make the case that Netanyahu, alone among Israelis, has the strength and political credibility to lead his people away from the precipice.
tomorrow, President Barack Obama will tell him that his country could face a bleak future -- one of international isolation and demographic disaster -- if he refuses to endorse a U.S.-drafted framework agreement for peace with the Palestinians. Obama will warn Netanyahu that time is running out for Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy. And the president will make the case that Netanyahu, alone among Israelis, has the strength and political credibility to lead his people away from the precipice.
"There comes a point where you can't manage this anymore, and then
you start having to make very difficult choices," Obama said. "Do you
resign yourself to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank? Is
that the character of Israel as a state for a long period of time? Do you
perpetuate, over the course of a decade or two decades, more and more
restrictive policies in terms of Palestinian movement? Do you place
restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel's traditions?"
On the subject of Middle East peace, Obama told me
that the U.S.'s friendship with Israel is undying, but he also issued what I
took to be a veiled threat: The U.S., though willing to defend an isolated
Israel at the United Nations and in other international bodies, might soon be
unable to do so effectively.
"If you see no peace deal and continued
aggressive settlement construction -- and we have seen more aggressive
settlement construction over the last couple years than we've seen in a very
long time," Obama said. "If Palestinians come to believe that the
possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within
reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be
limited."
No comments:
Post a Comment