Israel said the United States “does not understand reality” as its leader arrived in Washington on Friday after President Barack Obama endorsed a longstanding Palestinian demand on borders of a future state. In a policy speech on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, Obama laid down his clearest markers yet on the compromises he believes Israel and the Palestinians must make to resolve the decades-old conflict.
Obama embraced the Palestinian view that the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem. The right-wing Netanyahu, who has had strained relations with the Democrat Obama, reacted by saying in a statement that this could leave Israel with borders that were indefensible.
“There is a feeling that Washington does not understand the reality, doesn’t understand what we face,” an official on board the plane taking Netanyahu to Washington told reporters. “The prime minister’s tough response expresses the disappointment with the absence of central issues that Israel demanded, chiefly the refugee (issue),” he added. Israel says it cannot accept a Palestinian demand to give millions of refugees the right to return from neighbouring countries.