Undeterred by the angry Israeli furor caused by his reference to “1967 lines” as the basis for any future Palestinian state, U.S. President Barack Obama held firm Sunday to that fundamental starting point in a speech to a powerful pro-Israel lobby group.
But the president also made clear America’s unwavering support for Israel, vowing to maintain Israeli military superiority over its Arab neighbours.
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Mr. Obama said he wasn’t surprised by reaction to his use of the phase “1967 lines.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington only days ago, bluntly dismissed the president’s call, calling Israel’s pre-1967 war borders “indefensible.”
Not only the Israeli leader but several Republican presidential hopefuls savaged Mr. Obama.
“If there is a controversy, it is not based in substance,” Mr. Obama told a packed Washington Convention Center, whose AIPAC delegates gave him repeated ovations for his professions of American support for the Jewish state but were markedly quieter as he explained his reference to “1967 lines.”
Mr. Obama said he had publicly said what everyone had accepted for decades and what had explicitly been discussed in private for years; that the two-state solution required the pre-1967 borders as a starting point – adjusted by “mutually-agreed swaps” of land to take into account the new demographic and security realities.
In his AIPAC speech, Mr. Obama said the pressure was on. Israel “can’t afford to wait another decade, or two decades” for a peace with Palestinians, he said. “Delay will undermine security.”
Prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel was less than 20 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. During the war, Israel seized territory from Jordan, Egypt and Syria, including the West Bank of the Jordan, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the old walled section of Jerusalem. Since then, sprawling Jewish suburbs have been built around Jerusalem and scattered Israeli settlements dominated key parts of the West Bank. Hundreds of thousands of Jews now live in areas seized in the 1967 war.
Readjustment of that border has long been regarded as essential to any peace deal.
On Sunday, Mr. Obama was at pains to explain what he meant with his reference to the “1967 lines” as a basis for boundary negotiation.
“By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967,” Mr. Obama said, referring to the date that the six-day war started 44 years ago.
“It is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides.”
Mr. Obama sought to soothe any ruffled feathers.
“Even if we may at time disagree, as friends sometimes do,” he said he understood the stark realities facing a “small nation like Israel living in a very tough neighbourhood.”
He told wildly cheering delegates that his administration would “remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
He also – in a pointed reference to Hamas, the Islamic party that won election in Gaza but refuses to accept Israel’s right to exist – said “no country can be expected to negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction.”
Source: The Globe and Mail
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