That could come in the form of a major speech or a U.S. -backed U.N. Security Council resolution – both moves that would increase pressure on Israel and that Netanyahu would be expected to oppose.
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At his United Nations General Assembly speech Tuesday, Obama re-stated the USA support for a two-state solution to the conflict. Netanyahu delivers a speech to the UN National Assembly Thursday and is scheduled to meet other world leaders on the sidelines of the session.
Following his speech, the president was set to raise concerns about Israeli settlement activity in Arab lands during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in NY yesterday.
A senior administration official said after the meeting that Obama raised “profound” USA concerns regarding the “corrosive effect” that Israeli settlement activity is having on a potential two-state solution, which Netanyahu disputed. For both leaders, it’s a capstone to a relationship that has been testy at best. Ties between the two leaders never fully recovered after Netanyahu showed up on Capitol Hill to lobby Congress against Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
“I’ll be interested in hearing from the Prime Minister his assessment of conditions within Israel, and in the West Bank”, Obama told the press.
“It is a very hard and risky time in the Middle East, and we want to make sure that Israel has the full capabilities it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe”, he added, alluding to the historic 10-year $38 billion military aid package that was signed last week.
The two stalwart allies – and occasional antagonists – trumpeted the “extensive security and intelligence cooperation” between the United States and Israel, which culminated in a new 10-year, $38 billion military aid package agreed to last week.
The military said Wednesday it was investigating soldiers’ behavior during a Hebron arrest, after photos emerged of troops beating an unarmed Palestinian.
The United States and Israel inked an agreement last week worth 38 billion dollars in military aid over the next decade, sealing Israel’s status as the leading recipient of USA foreign military aid. The president rarely opens his golf game up to anyone beyond close friends and aides, and he has had a cool relationship with Mr. Netanyahu since his first term.
Israel has long relied on United States vetoes to avoid criticism at the Security Council for its many misdeeds in the occupied territories, and despite the suggestion that Obama is uncooperative, he’s vetoed everything, just like other presidents have.
Israel’s Defense Ministry says its forces shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in the leg after she refused to stop at a West Bank crossing.
“With respect to Middle East peace, I wouldn’t rule out the President taking any particular step on the issue”, Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said Tuesday.
That means the focus shifts in the USA to Mr Obama’s potential successors: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
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But with four months left in his White House tenure, Obama has, according to aides, abandoned pursuit of a new peace initiative, although he could yet lay out an American plan for a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, possibly after the November 8 election to pick his successor, or offer a new U.N. Security Council resolution.
