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Video: Netanyahu Tells Obama To His Face His Israel Peace Plan Is Indefensible

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Awkwaaaard! (AP)

After a closed-door 90-meeting in the Oval Office lasted far longer than expected today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama emerged to brief reporters on their, ahem, progress. And in a rare public rebuke, Netanyahu-serious told Obama and the world straight up: Any return to the 1967 borders with Palestine is out of the question and indefensible. Watch what the Wall Street Journal describes as an "awkward moment":

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MSNBC says Netanyahu's comments, in which he warned against "a peace based on illusions," sounded more "like a recitation of the many barriers to peace than an explanation of why there should be any reason for optimism." The two leaders took no questions, but in a press conference following the episode, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was unable to point to any concrete signs of progress. Israel refuses to negotiate with a Palestinian government comprised of the mainstream Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which governs Gaza and is seen by both the U.S. and Israel as an illegitimate terrorist government.

Carney did say that Obama's stance on the pre-1967 lines just "made explicit a long-standing U.S. position during previous talks on a future Palestinian state. That is a formulation that has been understood." But he said Obama "felt it was important to articulate that." The Washington Post has some interesting background intrigue on Obama's Mideast speech Thursday; officials say the Israelis weren't aware of the speech until a few hours before it was delivered, and when they learned about the pre-1967 border part, Netanyahu reportedly "had a tense phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... causing Mr. Obama's speech to begin 35 minutes late."

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  • Elderta2

    Those of you defending Bibi... This is from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. I DARE you to defend him after reading this. DARE YOU.

    http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Gove...

    Joint statement by PM Netanyahu and US Sec Clinton

    11 Nov 2010



    ‪‪The
    discussions between the Prime Minister and the Secretary focused on
    creating the conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed
    at producing a two-state solution.

      

      
    Photo: GPO

    Prime Minister
    Netanyahu and Secretary Clinton had a good discussion today, with a
    friendly and productive exchange of views on both sides. Secretary
    Clinton reiterated the United States' unshakable commitment to Israel's
    security and to peace in the region. ‪‪The Prime Minister and
    the Secretary agreed on the importance of continuing direct negotiations
    to achieve our goals. The Secretary reiterated that "the United States
    believes that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually
    agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the
    Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967
    lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with
    secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and
    meet Israeli security requirements." Those requirements will be fully
    taken into account in any future peace agreement.‪‪‪The
    discussions between the Prime Minister and the Secretary focused on
    creating the conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed
    at producing a two-state solution. Their teams will work closely
    together in the coming days toward that end.

  • JarekAF

    He just threw Israel under the Bus.   

  • Elderta2

     This bus is completely going over the cliff if someone sane on either side doesn't show up. Ugh. :(

  • I'm glad that Netanyahu Spoke up against this.  Obama really dissapointed me this time with the idea that Israel should give up more land in Judea and Samaria.  Actually the Arabs are the ones who are the settlers and it is Israel who rightfully own the land, so Israel doesn't have to give up an inch of whats rightfully hers. When the Palastinians aka Jordanians and Syrians stop kidnapping Israeli soldiers, firing missles at Israel, blowing up Israeli buses, shooting Israelis, and stop throwing rocks, THEN there can be peace.

    I, by the way, will be writing to my congressman to triple the foreign aid to Israel and to de-fund Israel's enemies. Any decent human being should do the same.

  • JarekAF

    "When the Palastinians aka Jordanians and Syrians "

    National identity is a social construct. 
    Who the F are you to tell other people who they are.  

    The Irish Patrick Mahoney - aka White European dumbass.  

    That doesn't sound very nice does it.  So don't treat others that way. 

  • canofpeas

    Decent human beings don't support fascist governments.

  • bashalih

    i loved netanyahu's comments!!!! he finally said, out loud, what most zionists have known forever.

  •  Shouldn't there be a caption contest for the photo?

    Obama looks like he just swallowed an unorganic matzso ball.

  • Okay, I'l start it:

    "Who cut the cheese?"

    Obama: "Damn, I knew I shouldda given my iPod gift with my speeches to Bibi instead of Queen Elizabeth."

    Bibi: "Did I kick his ass or what!" 

    Obama: "Sh*t, that was worse than my first day of initiation in my Muslim convert classes."

  • Since our plan is so unrealistic, our billions in foreign aid to Israel must be unrealistic as well. I hope Netanyahu demands the Knesset cut us a check for all the foreign aid U.S. taxpayers have sent his country since 1967

  • Netanyahu is the one who is delusional, if he is seriously attempting to bully the USA.
    The far-right parties that pull his strings aside, the long-term demographic numbers are not on the side of Israel if there is going to be only one state. A two-state solution ultimately means the preservation of Israel.

  • S.D.

    Not delusional, just playing to his base constituents.

    Remember: He approved the new settlements...

  • Lawrence Kuznick

     In 1949, Israel, with about 600,000 people (Jews), was attacked by the Arab world -- its armies, its diplomats, its newspapers... its fury that the Jews had the temerity to create a country.  Islam relegates Jews to an inferior position.  Sadat of Egypt, before having his epiphany of realpolitik, stated that "we" shall return the Jews to their proper place of servitude.  The Arabs lost.  In 1967, The Arab world again readied their armies to attack Israel.  Planes were on notice, tanks, infantry, their whole militry apparatus.  Every day Arab leaders were screaming hysterically that now the Jews will be drowned in the sea.  The Jews, the Israelis, made a decision that anyone reading this comment would want to make himself, they didn't wait to be attacked but rather took the offensive and lashed out at the armies positioned virtually on their borders.  Israel pleaded with the king of Jordan to do nothing, but to no avail.  Pronouncements from the heads of governments for the Arabs to pull back were met with derision.  The extraordinary results of that war, the 6-day war, put Israel in control of parts of the country which had been ruled by Jordan since 1949, as well as the Egyptian Sinai Desert and the Golan Heights which were then in Syria.

    Moshe Dayan, one of the heroes of Israel, said that they were waiting for the phone to ring, to discuss the demarcation lines.  It never rang.  So the demarcation lines remained.  They were not borders, only the lines where fighting had stopped in 1949.  Israel, the victor, was pleading with the Arabs to negotiate peace.  The response was a firm refusal... to even sit in the same room with the Israelis.  

    New realities were created.  Still, at Camp David, the representative of the Palestinian people, Mr. Arafat, walked out after the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, offered to give them almost all of the land won in 1949, but not accept those people who had fled.  This does not even take into consideration that virtually the same number of Jews who had lived in Arab lands for centuries were expelled and also became refugees.  Somehow, the world doesn't ever consider this fact.

    The United Nations in 1967 referred to territorities to be negotiated.  Significantly, it never said 'the territories'.  This left open the opportunity to negotiate.  When President Obama now talks of returning to the pre-1967 truce lines (not borders!), he negates the UN resolutions and sets the Arabs again to thinking that they could obtain whatever they want.. this time without having to take up military arms.  The world would like this matter to go away.  It is ready to accede to the demands being prepared against the Jewish state.  That tiny piece of land unfortunately needs a patron, a major power from outside the region.... it is how geopolitics works.  Israel has had that, not always though, in the United States.  Israel has also served the U.S. in its needs for geopolitical realities in the middle east.  With Mr. Obama's speech this week, it remains to be seen if this will continue.

  • JarekAF

    Thus, 

    The Palestinians deserve to be occupied by brutal violent force!

    Bravo! 

  •  The leadership of the Israelis and of the Palestinia­ns continue to let down not only their own people, but the rest of the world. Their joint intransige­nce threatens all of us. How long do they propose to keep living like that?       http://bit.ly/isOmYy    

  • canofpeas

    Netanyahu should be in in prison awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.

  •  Question? If Arafat were still alive, would you reserve a space in prison for him? I anxiously await your reply.

  • canofpeas

     Let's deflect the issue by focusing on a hypothetical concerning a dead man.  Megaphone zombie...

  • Mark Rast

    You mean a loyalty oath like a pledge? A pledge of Allegiance? Is it like the one we have that you leftists keep tinkering with and trying to ban because it makes reference to God?  

  •  I would try to educate you on the immense stupidity of this comment, but it's clear I'm too late and your brains have already leaked out your ears.

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