Most no longer believe Netanyahu wants peace Obama tells Israelis

Agency reports from 1) Reuters, 2) Reuters illustrated by six cartoons from the last 2 years.

Caricature in Stuttgarter Zeitung showing Netanyahu carrying poison bottle marked ‘settlement construction’ next to dove holding olive branch. Israeli embassy in Germany delivers letter to editor. Ynet.

Obama: Netanyahu’s Palestine stance erodes Israel’s credibility

By Dan Williams, Reuters
June 02, 2015

JERUSALEM –U.S. President Barack Obama said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for diplomacy that might lead to a Palestinian state meant Israel had lost international credibility as a potential peacemaker.

Obama also suggested that continued U.S. diplomatic defence for Israel at the United Nations over the Palestine dispute may be reviewed, while reaffirming U.S. support for Israeli security in a conflict-riven Middle East.

In an interview with Israeli television aired on Tuesday, he offered a bleak outlook for decades of negotiations on Palestinian statehood bearing any fruit during the 18 months he has left in office.

“I don’t see the likelihood of a framework agreement,” Obama said in an interview with Uvda, a current-affairs program produced by Israel’s top-rated Channel Two and Keshet television. “The question is how do we create some building blocks of trust and progress.”

While Obama has acknowledged the geographical and ideological divisions among Palestinians that have bedevilled peace efforts, in the interview — taped in the White House on Friday — he focused on Netanyahu’s policies.

On the eve of his March 17 election to a fourth term, Netanyahu said there would be no Palestinian state if he remained premier. He argued that any withdrawals from occupied territory by Israel would embolden hardline Islamist guerrillas arrayed on its borders.

Netanyahu has since sought to row back from those remarks but his peace overtures have met with scepticism from the Palestinians as well as Western diplomats.

Latuff caricature of Netanyahu’s approach to bargaining for peace.

Obama said Netanyahu’s position “has so many caveats, so many conditions that it is not realistic to think that those conditions would be met at any time in the near future.

“So the danger is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution.”

The last round of U.S.-sponsored talks stalled more than a year ago, with Palestinians blaming Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, among the territories where they seek an independent state.

Obama said now was the time for a re-evaluation of “how we approach defending Israel on the international stage around the Palestinian issue”.

He cited pro-Palestinian resolutions at the United Nations that Washington has long blocked in the name of encouraging direct diplomacy between the sides. Asked whether such U.S. vetoes would continue, Obama sounded circumspect.

Cartoon by Osama Hajjaj, Abu Mahjoob Creative Productions

“Well, here’s the challenge. If in fact there is no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there is a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction, those who are concerned about the current situation,” he said.

“It is more difficult for me to say to them, ‘Be patient, wait, because we have a process here.'”

Israelis and Palestinians both, Obama said, should work with the United States to “move off what appears right now to be a hopeless situation and move it back toward a hopeful situation”. He did not offer more concrete solutions.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately comment on the Obama interview. Speaking at an Israeli missile defense drill earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu stressed the need for self-sufficiency: “When it comes to Israel’s security, I rely, first of all, on ourselves.”

Amos Biderman in HaAretz, Oct. 4, 2010.

Obama on Israeli TV pushes Iran deal, need for peace process

By JTA
June 02, 2015

JERUSALEM — It will be more difficult for the United States to defend Israel in international forums while there is no prospect for a peace process, President Barack Obama said on Israeli television.

Obama discussed the need for a real prospect for peace and lobbied directly to the Israeli public about the need for a nuclear deal with Iran during a wide-ranging interview with Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan aired Tuesday on Channel 2’s news magazine “Uvda,” or “Fact.”

Obama, stressing his support for Israel, said, “I have been there when it comes to protecting the Israeli people,” referencing military and cooperation and the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.

He called Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has had a well-publicized rift, “predisposed” to thinking of security first and peace as “naive,” but added that Netanyahu “loves Israel deeply and cares about the security of Israel deeply and recognizes the history of hostility and antisemitism.”

Obama said that Israel must resolve its status quo with the Palestinians before demographics and frustration take over. He added that it was difficult to accept “at face value” Netanyahu’s post-election statements that he is committed to a two-state solution, especially after his “unequivocal” statement before the March election that there would not be a Palestinian state on his watch.

Caricature of US-Israeli relations and the “peace process” by Jehad Awrtani

“Subsequently his statements have suggested that there is a possibility of a Palestinian state, but there are so many caveats, so many conditions that it’s not realistic to think these conditions will be met anytime soon,” the U.S. leader said.

Obama said the practical consequences of no peace process is “how we approach defending Israel on the international stage.” With no prospect of a peace process, he said, it becomes more difficult to ask other concerned countries to vote against resolutions against Israel.

The president said that he does “not see the likelihood of a framework agreement” during the last 18 months of his term.

Obama said he was confident that if a nuclear agreement with Iran based on the Geneva framework agreement is completed, “we will have cut off [Iran’s] path to a nuclear weapon.” He added that if the deal does not allow for verification, then “there will be no deal.” Also, Obama said, Iran could also still walk away from an agreement before a final document is signed.

He said the agreement would take the nuclear option off the table for 20 years and that the current path, including the possibility that Israel would exercise a military option, is the “worst possible scenario.”

Obama said that Netanyahu’s controversial speech against the Iran deal to Congress is “in the past,” but added that if he agreed to speak to the Knesset without first telling the prime minister, there would likely be “some sense that protocol was breached.” The president said that he and Netanyahu have “good conversations” that are “tough and forceful,” and that he enjoys verbally “jousting” with the prime minister.

The U.S.-Israel relationship, Obama said, is “deeper than any individual leader or particular government.”
He called on Israel and Israelis to engage in “self-reflection” and to “feed home and not just fear.”

Image of US-Israel relations by Thommy.