Obama says Israelis must compromise on Palestine
JERUSALEM — U.S. President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned appeal Thursday for Israel to recognize that compromise will be necessary to achieve lasting security and to take steps to reverse an “undertow” of international isolation that is worsened by its failure to make peace with the Palestinians. Militants again underscored Israel’s vulnerability by firing rockets into a southern border town.
Obama declared anew that Israeli expansion of housing settlements in disputed territory only hinders chances for fruitful negotiations with the Palestinians, but he did not say as he has in the past that they must be halted.
Reminding an audience of Israeli university students that the United States is their country’s best friend and most important ally, Obama said the U.S. will never back down on its commitment to Israel’s defence, particularly against threats such as the one posed by Iran and its nuclear program.
“As long as there is a United States of America, you are not alone,” he added.
Obama stressed that Israel must make peace with the Palestinians if it is to ensure its survival and longterm viability as a homeland for the Jewish people. Israeli occupation of areas that the Palestinians claim for their own state must end, and progress toward creating that Palestinian state will help Israel’s relations with the rest of the world, notably in its Arab-dominated neighbourhood, he said.
“Given the frustration in the international community, Israel must reverse an undertow of isolation,” he said. Whereas once Israel could feel at ease by keeping good relations with Arab autocrats, the revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa have made broader outreach, especially on the Palestinian issue, an imperative, he added.
“Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land,” Obama said. “The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and their justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes, look at the world through their eyes.”
Unlike in the past when Obama and his top aides have demanded that Israel halt the expansion of settlements in disputed territory, he took a softer approach.
Still, on his first trip to Israel as president, he said its people should understand that specific actions, notably ongoing construction of Jewish housing on disputed territory, hurt the chances for restarting stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, who have made a halt to such building a demand for returning to negotiations.