As sweeping change rocks the Arab world, U.S. President Barack Obama boosted Palestinian hopes for an independent state by pointedly calling on Israel to regard its 1967 borders as the basis for a neighbouring Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states,” Mr. Obama said Thursday, apparently the first time a U.S. president has drawn a line in the sand by publicly using the “1967 lines” phrase.
Mr. Obama’s deliberate use of the phrase touched off a furor even if the basic outlines of a peace settlement remain unchanged.
It came in a wide-ranging speech that staked out American support for democratic reform in the Middle East that served notice on Arab dictators – allies as well as adversaries – that they need to heed the call for change or face ouster.
“At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the [Arab-Israeli] conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever,” the President said in a speech timed for evening television audiences throughout the Middle East.
Infuriated, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected any “full and complete return” to the pre-1967 frontiers, citing “new realities on the ground,” by which he means the sprawling Jewish suburbs ranging east of Jerusalem and scattered settlements occupying strategic points throughout the West Bank. Israel defeated Arab nations in 1967, seizing Gaza, Old Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
The Israeli leader faces Mr. Obama today in the Oval Office in another of the often-tense sessions between the two men.
Although the use of the phrase “1967 lines” will irk many Israelis and delight Palestinians, the basic framework of an independent Palestine comprised of Gaza and the West Bank with land swaps to accommodate major Jewish settlements has long been American policy.
“We all knew it was going to be there,” said Dan Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. “But it hadn’t been formally articulated until now.” Stating this principle was one of the things Palestinian leaders have long demanded and Israeli leaders have long dreaded.
But even as he ramped up the pressure on Israel to make concessions for peace, Mr. Obama also reaffirmed America’s unwavering support for the Jewish state and warned Palestinians against attempting to “delegitimize” it.
As he alternately cajoled and threatened the region’s leaders to make concessions and embrace change, he seemed to accept that the long-standing U.S. policy of staunchly backing even ruthless regimes if they were loyal allies of major oil suppliers was also outdated.
“After decades of accepting the world as it is, in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be,” Mr. Obama said.
The sweeping change of the Arab Spring has unsettled Israel, where a cold peace with Egypt and the standoff with Syria have endured for decades.
In a combative statement just before he boarded his Washington-bound plane, Mr. Netanyahu called on Mr. Obama to accept promises made by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in 2004.
“Those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines, which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centres in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] beyond those lines,” Mr. Netanyahu said, although the statement seemingly ignored Mr. Obama’s explicit reference to “mutually agreed swaps.”
Still, Israeli has an iron-fisted final say. As the party occupying the territories in question, Israel’s agreement is an effective veto against any deal it doesn’t like, said Mr. Kurtzer, Washington’s ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005.
Mr. Obama’s use of the charged phase “1967 lines” aroused fierce partisan criticism at home.
