Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a wildly enthusiastic Congress on Tuesday that he was willing to make “painful compromises” to secure peace in the Middle East, but he bluntly rejected President Obama’s demand that Israel abandon occupied territories to jump-start long-stalled talks with the Palestinians. In sharp contrast to his tense meeting with Obama last week, Netanyahu scored a clear political victory with lawmakers, with Democrats joining Republicans in praising the Israeli leader despite his rebuke of a Democratic president.
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Obama last week called on Israel to withdraw from territories it occupied after the Six Day War of 1967, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But that proposal ignited an immediate backlash from Israel and lawmakers at home.
By Sunday, Obama had softened his demand, saying it had been misconstrued and telling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that the border will ultimately have to be negotiated and not reset automatically to the 1967 plan.
Netanyahu made it clear he won’t go along with Obama’s initial proposal. Reverting to pre-1967 borders would make it impossible for Israel to protect itself militarily, he said, and would reduce the country to half the width of the Washington Beltway.
“Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967,” Netanyahu proclaimed to a packed joint session of Congress. Jerusalem, he said, would remain fully within Israeli borders.
Lawmakers applauded Netanyahu, though Vice President Biden, who was sitting behind the Israeli leader, did not join in.
Netanyahu told a full House chamber that his country would also need continued financial support from the United States if it were to remain “the one anchor of stability” and freedom in the Middle East.
Republicans and Democrats alike gave Netanyahu numerous standing ovations during the speech and widely praised him afterward, with some Democrats expressing regret that Obama had caused such a stir with Israel in the first place with his initial boundary proposal.
“I think he tried to clarify it on Sunday,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told The Washington Examiner. “I wish he hadn’t said it the way he said it. But clearly he’s said that all of the territory should be considered” in negotiations between the two sides.
Netanyahu’s speech included a compromise offer that Israel would hand over some settled land to the Palestinians. But he warned that he could not negotiate with the Palestinian government on any agreement if it didn’t abandon a power-sharing arrangement it signed with Hamas, a militant anti-Israel organization he called a Palestinian version of al Qaeda.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., called Netanyahu’s speech “terrific” but also defended the “tough limits” proposed by Obama.
Netanyahu “boldly stated that indeed Israel would have to in any resolution move away from some settlements,” Kerry said.
“Now you’ve got to get talks going,” he added. “Not newspaper stories, but talks.”
