Israel's prime minister rejects Obama proposal on borders

Israel's prime minister rejects Obama proposal on borders


timesofearth.com WASHINGTON - Israel is prepared to make "generous" concessions for peace in the Middle East, but cannot go back to the country's "indefensible" 1967 borders, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said following White House talks with Barack Obama. Netanyahu's comments came after Obama, the US president, had said the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed land swaps, should form the basis for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, in a major speech on the Middle East on Thursday. "A peace based on illusions will crash upon the rocks of Middle Eastern reality... I think for peace the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities," Netanyahu said. He said that a return to those borders was impossible because the region had seen "demographic changes". "While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 borders because these borders are indefensible." A spokesman for Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas responded to the statements, calling on Obama to further press Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. "Netanyahu's position is an official rejection of Mr Obama's initiative, of international legitimacy and of international law," said Nabil Abu Rudeina. In statements made after their talks, both Obama and Netanyahu rejected the involvement of Hamas in peace negotiations, following the recent Palestinian unity deal involving the group and Abbas' Fatah faction ...