Unprecedented
June 1, 2011
Unprecedented
by David Brog
Last week, both President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu staked out their positions on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Their speeches have launched a thousand commentaries about Israel’s pre-1967 borders and the best way to achieve peace in the Middle East. But missed in this torrent of talk were three significant departures from prior positions.
In his May 19th speech, President Obama declared that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” Not only did the President emphasize the ’67 lines, but he did so in the absence of any corresponding Palestinian concessions. Both in his original speech and in his clarification of that speech before AIPAC, President Obama failed to mention the key Palestinian concession – the rejection of the Palestinian “right of return” to Israel, i.e. the “right” of the millions of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original 1948 refugees to “return” to Israel and turn it into another Arab state.
More here:
http://brogsblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/unprecedented/
