Obama: Path to Israel-Palestine peace now ‘hard to find’

WASHINGTON: In a fresh rebuke to Benjamin Netanyahu, President Barack Obama said the Israeli leader’s pre-election disavowal of a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict makes it “hard to find a path” toward serious negotiations to resolve the issue.

In an interview with Huffington Post, Obama also scolded Netanyahu over his remarks about Arab Israelis voting, making clear that the deep rift in relations between Israel and the US, its most important ally, is not ending anytime soon.

In the interview, Obama described his Thursday phone call with Netanyahu, two days after the Israeli leader was re-elected.

“I did indicate to him that we continue to believe that a twostate solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic,” he said, in his first public comments on the issue.

“And I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible.”

The worst crisis in decades in US-Israeli relations was worsened by Netanyahu’s declaration just before Tuesday’s election that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch. Netanyahu sought on Thursday to backtrack from that.

“Well, we take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region,” said Obama, whose administration sponsored failed talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state that would exist peacefully with Israel.

The White House had said after the Thursday’s call that Obama had told Netanyahu, the US would “reassess” its options on US-Israel relations and Middle East diplomacy.

In the interview, Obama also expressed dismay over Netanyahu’s Election Day warning to his supporters about Arab Israeli voters going to the polls “in droves.”

“We indicated that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel’s traditions, that although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly,” Obama said. – Reuters