Barack Obama Warns Israel To Grab Peace Chance — Or Risk Isolation
By JTA
Published March 03, 2014.
Washington — The United States will have a “limited” ability to manage the “international fallout” on Israel if it does not make peace with the Palestinians, President Obama said.
“The absence of international goodwill makes you less safe,” Obama told Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg during an interview in the Oval Office, which was published Sunday afternoon. “The condemnation of the international community can translate into a lack of cooperation when it comes to key security interests. It means reduced influence for us, the United States, in issues that are of interest to Israel.”
Obama said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is the most politically moderate Palestinian leaders that Israel is likely to face across the peace negotiating table, and said now is the time to seize the opportunity to make peace with someone who he says is sincere about recognizing Israel and its right to exist and its security needs.
The president sympathized with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political difficulties at home in trying to negotiate a peace deal, but added that he believes Netanyahu is one of the only Israeli politicians who could cut such a deal and sell it to the Israeli people.
“For Bibi to seize the moment in a way that perhaps only he can, precisely because of the political tradition that he comes out of and the credibility he has with the right inside of Israel, for him to seize this moment is perhaps the greatest gift he could give to future generations of Israelis,” Obama said, referring to Netanyahu by his popular nickname.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/193711/barack-obama-warns-israel-to-grab-peace-chance-o/#ixzz2uwg4ZcyJ
= new reply since forum marked as read
