Netanyahu Gives No Ground in Congress Speech
By HELENE COOPER and ETHAN BRONNER
NYT
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, broadly laying out the Israeli response to President Obama’s peace proposals, called on the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday to accept what Mr. Netanyahu framed as a tenet: that Palestinians will not get a right of return to Israel. In so doing, he made clear that he was giving no ground on the major stumbling blocks to a peace agreement.
“I stood before my people and said that I will accept a Palestinian state; it’s time for President Abbas to stand up before his people and say, ‘I will accept a Jewish state,’ ” Mr. Netanyahu said to cheers from a hugely friendly crowd of Democratic and Republican lawmakers gathered in the House chamber of the Capitol.
“Those six words will change history,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “With those six words, the Israeli people will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise. I will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise.”
Of course, those words have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979. Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and across the Palestinian diaspora want a right of return to the homes they left, or were forced to leave, in Israel. But Israeli officials say a flood of refugees would mean more Arabs than Jews in Israel and could threaten Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, broadly laying out the Israeli response to President Obama’s peace proposals, called on the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday to accept what Mr. Netanyahu framed as a tenet: that Palestinians will not get a right of return to Israel. In so doing, he made clear that he was giving no ground on the major stumbling blocks to a peace agreement.
“I stood before my people and said that I will accept a Palestinian state; it’s time for President Abbas to stand up before his people and say, ‘I will accept a Jewish state,’ ” Mr. Netanyahu said to cheers from a hugely friendly crowd of Democratic and Republican lawmakers gathered in the House chamber of the Capitol.
“Those six words will change history,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “With those six words, the Israeli people will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise. I will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise.”
Of course, those words have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979. Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and across the Palestinian diaspora want a right of return to the homes they left, or were forced to leave, in Israel. But Israeli officials say a flood of refugees would mean more Arabs than Jews in Israel and could threaten Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
The Palestinians were there only one to exist because of the indigenous Palestinians took care of the Ottomans and Britain and they not mean that Jews can steal ethnic Palestine.The the Israeli government has rejected the comments of Obama, where the borders of 1967 unacceptable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now in the U.S. and meeting with Obama in the White House.i just hope that it will work out.
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