WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama told Orthodox Jewish leaders on Tuesday that President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians may not want a peace agreement and that he fears that the window of opportunity for a deal is closing.
Nevertheless, Obama said he intends to continue to promote the two-state solution. In a meeting with Orthodox Union leaders at the White House Obama said that he was consistent in his support for Israel throughout his first term as president.
Obama said that differences with Israel were in part due to the quirk of history of a centrist US government and a right-wing Israeli government coexisting. He noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to act without restraints, but that most leaders want to the same. Netanyahu does not was to be seen as bowing to the US administration and being perceived as weak, he said.
Nevertheless, he stressed that he and Netanyahu get along well. He noted that his statement on settlement construction freeze was based on the position of the four previous administrations.
Asked about lessons learned from efforts to promote the peace process, he replied that Egypt and Syria were examples for the burning need to resolve the Palestinian issue. He said he had learned that the process was truly a tough one and that there were many opportunities for misunderstandings.
Obama noted that both Israel and the Palestinians felt the US pressure to reach a compromise which created tensions. He stressed that although Israel felt it was the only one being pressed, Washington did the same with the Palestinians. Obama added that the fact that the US was more responsive toward Israel created a problem with the Palestinians.
‘US is pro-Israeli’
The US president stated that the fact that the White House declared that Israel’s needs were the most important in the two-state solution proves it is pro-Israeli. He expressed hope that the parties will go forward with the peace process but admitted it was possible that the Palestinians were not interested in an agreement.
He noted that their position regarding the peace process had suffered a setback.
Obama stressed that his commitment to Israel can not be questioned but that he cannot be expected to agree with Israel on all matters.
The meeting was also attended by Obama’s Jewish chief of staff Jack Lew, Orthodox Union President Dr. Simcha Katz, OU Public Policy Director Nathan Diament and other Jewish leaders.
@ Vinnie:
Yes Vinnie, obama is merely looking for Jewish votes.
I said many times here, “forget what he says, watch what he does”. He lies. He is a phony.
The only peace the Pals want is a good piece of the Holy Land.
Like obama you can’t trust any of the Arabs.
It’s an election year. What do you expect?
In the six months leading up to the ’08 election, if all I knew about Obama was how he represented himself on the campaign trail with respect to Israel, I’d conclude that he was an OK guy on that issue.
He’s Lucy, reassuring the collective Jewish American voter “Charlie Brown” that THIS time, he’ll let him kick the football. I wouldn’t trust him at all, not at all.
If there’s one talent Obama has, it is his ability to lie through his teeth in the most outrageous way, while keeping a straight face. He is a con man extraordinaire.
The fact that he links the unrest in the rest of the region to the lack of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is his manufactured rhetorical excuse, before the fact, for resuming full-bore pressure on Israel after the election, if he is re-elected. That is the clue we cannot afford to miss.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen him publicly criticize the Palestinian leadership, and I admit that is pretty amazing by itself. But what does he require of them? Does he lay down any concrete policy markers for them, as he did for Israel in abundance back in May of ’11? Does he, for example, support “our most important ally in the region, Israel” [as he’s said on numerous occasions to Jewish audiences] in requiring that the Palestinian leaders recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, and demand further that they amend their national charter accordingly, as a precondition to any negotiations with Israel? No, he does not.
At the very least, he’s just covering his butt and making excuses for his utterly failed policies in this area. But more than that, he is just playing that Peanuts comic strip game I referred to above, for purely immediate political purposes.
Romney in 2012: Because we have nowhere to go but up.
@ Bill Narvey:
I would love to see that!
Other articles confirm the same thought expressed by Obama that it strikes him that Palestinians may not want peace with Israel, yet he is persevering to make peace happen. Another article noted that Obama believed that Abbas may be too weak to deliver on any peace negotiations.
It would be most enlightening if the mainstream media pressed Obama to explain how he has finally come to a realization that Palestinians don’t want peace, which realization has been obvious for decades.
If Obama could be cornered to explain his thinking in that regard, he should then be pressed to explain why he is persevering in pushing for a peace deal that Palestinians don’t want.
Pr. O has an epiphany. What about the rest of the Western world!!! The problem of the ME is Islam 1.0.1. and not Israel. He still does not get it!
If he can say that what happened in Egypt and Syria only emphasis the need to reach an agreement with the Palestinians then he really doesn’t get it. Does he really think the human rights (like Jimmy Carter) in the Arab world are suddenly going to improve if the Palestians get a state. Why isn’t he talking about that? ( and he calls himself a liberal democrat) . A real humanistic solution to the refugee problem, for example, would be to give them the financial incentive to help the selves by resettling them in other host Arab countries where those who want to improve the lot of their families could receive financial remuneration to relocate, with both the money and jobs, to other these host countries adding to it’s economic well being and not as the indigent needy refugees those host countries fear to take in. That would be a real solution. Nationalism isn’t going to do it.