Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed away Thursday from his declaration that he wouldn’t support a Palestinian state, but furious Obama administration officials said they weren’t accepting his explanation.
Two days after winning reelection, Mr. Netanyahu hewed to long-standing U.S. policy toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during an interview on American television.
“I don’t want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution,” Mr. Netanyahu said on MSNBC. “I have not changed my policy.”
Amid the escalating tensions, President Obama spoke by telephone Thursday with Mr. Netanyahu to congratulate him on his reelection and reaffirm U.S. support for a two-state solution. The White House said the two leaders agreed to consult closely on “the difficult path forward to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
“The president reaffirmed the United States’ long-standing commitment to a two-state solution that results in a secure Israel alongside a sovereign and viable Palestine,” the White House said.
Earlier Thursday, however, administration officials said they weren’t buying Mr. Netanyahu’s comments that he still supports a two-state solution. The White House focused on his statement before Election Day that creating a Palestinian state would be “giving attack grounds to … radical Islam against the State of Israel.” He said a Palestinian state would not be created as long as he was prime minister.
While many in Israel viewed Mr. Netanyahu’s comments before and after the election as standard political rhetoric, White House officials said his words would have serious consequences. For example, administration officials said they would now consider supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian state generally along the pre-1967 lines that divided Israel from the West Bank and Gaza.
“It means that our policy decisions need to be reconsidered. And that’s what we will do,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “It has, in the mind of the president and other senior members of his team, created a need for the United States to reevaluate our approach.”
He mentioned the United Nations several times as a forum where the U.S. has consistently supported Israel.
“The United States has repeatedly intervened … at the U.N. and in other places by saying … the best way for us to solve this problem is to get the two parties to sit down at the negotiating table, resolve their differences so that this two-state solution can be realized,” Mr. Earnest said. “But now the prime minister of Israel says earlier this week, days before an election, that this is a principle that he no longer subscribes to and that his nation no longer subscribes to.”
During their phone call, Mr. Obama “emphasized the importance the United States places on our close military, intelligence and security cooperation with Israel, which reflects the deep and abiding partnership between both countries,” the White House said.
They also discussed Iran, with Mr. Obama reiterating that the U.S. is focused on reaching “a comprehensive deal with Iran that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and verifiably assures the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.” Two weeks ago, Mr. Netanyahu told Congress in a speech not to accept a nuclear deal with Iran that would allow Tehran to keep working to build a nuclear weapon.
Mr. Earnest said Mr. Netanyahu’s pre-campaign comments were “cynical, divisive, election-day tactics” to curry favor with hard-line voters in Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that, in light of Mr. Netanyahu’s earlier comment opposing a Palestinian state, he would renew his push for full U.N. recognition.
“If these things are true, it means that the Israeli government has no serious intentions to reach a peace agreement that will create two states based on the 1967 borders,” Mr. Abbas said during a Palestine Liberation Organization meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “We therefore will not retreat from our position to apply international law, and so it is our right to go anywhere in the world to realize our rights according to international law.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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