Friday, May 20, 2011

Obama and Netanyahu face tense session Mideast

WASHINGTON  - approval of the US President Barack Obama a Palestinian request for a long time on the borders of their future State paves the way for what could be a tense meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday.


Benjamin Netanyahu, who had strained relations with the Obama, headed to Washington saying that the vision of the President of a Palestinian State on the 1967 borders - in its elusive vision for a negotiated peace agreement with the U.S. - could leave "untenable." Israel


The White House talks were never conceived to yield no significant progress to re-launch the long peace talks - deadlocked but now this perspective seemed dimmer than ever.


Obama, in a speech policy Thursday on the "Spring of Arabic" uprisings across the Middle East, has its clearest markers still the compromises that Israel and the Palestinians need to do to resolve their decades-old dispute.


His position includes essentially the Palestinian view that the State, they seek in the West Bank and Gaza should extensively draw along the lines that existed before the war of 1967, in which Israel captured these territories and Jerusalem.


On the eve of the Netanyahu visit, it was seen as a message that Obama expects Israel to finally make big concessions.


"The viability of a Palestinian State cannot come at the expense of the existence of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement before flying to the United States for his interviews with Obama.


First statement of pure and simple of the Obama of its position on the issue of borders could help the doubts of ease in the Arab world in its commitment to act as an impartial broker.


But the Democratic President quickly came under fire from Republican critics, who accuse him of betraying the Israel, the closest U.S. ally in the region. Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating the base of the Jewish State of support among the American public and Congress as Obama seeks re-election in 2012.


"This approach undermines our special relations with Israel and weakens the ability of our ally to defend themselves, said House Cantor Eric for the Leader of the Republican majority."


ISRAELIS CONFUSED


Taken while Obama also had hard words for the Palestinians, Israeli officials have been particularly aback by its language blunt criticism of "colonization" and its continued occupation of Arab lands.


There was no word on if Netanyahu, who heads a coalition of right-wing, pro-settler, had been warned.


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the efforts of Obama renew talks which collapsed last year.


Obama has little to show for his efforts for peace since coming to Office. His last attempt collapsed when it backed that face Israel in the colony in the West Bank.


Despite the tensions, Obama has created three hours for Netanyahu Friday, including a working lunch. Visits could not always smooth, however.


In March of last year, Netanyahu was left cooling his heels, while Obama went to the residence of the White House for dinner with his family, seen as a snub in Israel.


Word of Thursday, Obama said: "we believe that the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the lines of 1967 with mutually agreed swaps" land.

Although this has long been the private Washington view, Obama went further than the American authorities have disappeared in the past, when they described such a solution as a Palestinian aspiration that it includes not only their own.

Obama, in a BBC interview after his speech, said that Israel is "going to have to feel confident about his security" before he is expected to agree on an arrangement of border.

Obama has also delivered messages that will be difficult for the Palestinians to swallow, suggesting their effort to gain membership of a Palestinian State of the Nations United is condemned and that they have much to explain to treat a reconciliation with Hamas, which considers the United States as a terrorist group.

To reassure the Israelis, Obama returned to the safety of Israel and said that any future Palestinian State must be "non-militarized", something Netanyahu demanded.

But he warned of Israel: "the dream of a Jewish and democratic State cannot be filled with permanent occupation."

In a sharp response, Netanyahu said that he expected to "hear a reaffirmation of President Obama of commitments U.S. taken into Israel in 2004" - a reference to a letter the President George w. Bush suggesting the Jewish State can keep blocks of large facility under a peace Pact. "."

Palestinians say settlement expansion is aimed at depriving a viable State and successive US administrations have saved the Jewish State of resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations condemning such activity.

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