Obama tells Israel: Go back to 1967 borders
Obama's urging that a Palestinian state be based on 1967 borders — those that existed before the Six-Day War in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — marked a significant shift in U.S. policy and seemed certain to anger Israel.
Israel has said an endorsement of the 1967 borders would prejudge negotiations. Obama will meet at the White House on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said he appreciated Obama's remarks, but rejected any withdrawal to what he called "indefensible" 1967 borders. He said such a withdrawal would jeopardize Israel's security and leave major West Bank settlements outside Israeli borders.
In his speech, Obama said a future Palestinian state must be based in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, with minor adjustments reached through negotiations.
In his speech, Obama said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has cast a shadow over the Mideast.
"For Israelis, it has meant living with the fear that their children could get blown up on a bus or by rockets fired at their homes, as well as the pain of knowing that other children in the region are taught to hate them," Obama said. "For Palestinians, it has meant suffering the humiliation of occupation, and never living in a nation of their own."
Obama said efforts by Palestinians to delegitimize Israel will end in failure.
"Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection," Obama said. "And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist."
In the wide-ranging talk, Obama said that the top U.S. priority in the Mideast and North Africa is the promotion of reform and democracy.
The United States welcomes any regional change that advances self-determination and opportunity, Obama said, as he compared what is happening in the region to signature moments of American history.
"We face a historic opportunity. We have a chance to show that America values the dignity of a street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator," he said.
The president saluted the popular unrest sweeping the Middle East and said the U.S. future was bound to that of the region, which is caught up in unprecedented upheaval.
"The people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow," Obama told an audience of U.S. and foreign diplomats at the State Department in Washington.
He hailed the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden's vision of destruction was fading even before U.S. forces shot him dead.
Story: Transcript: Obama's Mideast speech
"By the time we found bin Laden, al-Qaida's agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands," Obama said.
The president also ratcheted up pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, saying for the first time that he must stop a crackdown on protests and lead a democratic transition "or get out of the way." The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on al-Assad and other Syrian officials on Wednesday.
Backs Mideast plan based on 1967 borders
Obama went further than he has in the past in laying out the parameters of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, but stopped short of outlining a formal U.S. peace plan.
"The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states," he said.
"Our commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable," Obama said. "But precisely because of our friendship, it is important that we tell the truth: the status quo is unsustainable, and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace."
The speech was aimed at audiences in the United States as well as in the Middle East and North Africa, where the State Department was providing simultaneous translation in Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew.
Struggling to regain the initiative in a week of intense Middle East diplomacy, Obama was seizing an opportunity to reach out to the Arab world in the wake of the death of bin Laden at the hands of U.S. Navy SEAL commandos.
Obama had raised hopes with his 2009 speech in Cairo promising a "new beginning" with the Muslim world after years of estrangement under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
But the glow has faded and polls show anti-Americanism on the rise again.
The administration's announcement on Wednesday of its first sanctions directly targeting Assad over Syria's violent crackdown on protests was seen in part as an attempt to quell criticism that Washington was responding too cautiously.
Obama's domestic opponents have also accused him of acting too timidly in Libya to break the stalemate between Moammar Gadhafi and rebels trying to oust him, and of not being tough enough with autocratic allies in Yemen and Bahrain.
Source:msn
