The memo of understanding, he said, is indicative of that. He thanked Obama for the recent USA agreement on a 10-year, $38 billion military assistance package for Israel, the biggest military aid pact for a foreign country ever agreed to by Washington. Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have no plans to meet this week at the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
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In addition, the official stressed that neither United States presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump, have requested meetings with Netanyahu, but that if they did, he would respond positively.
Ties between the two leaders never fully recovered after Netanyahu showed up on Capitol Hill to lobby Congress against Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
The president raised concerns about “the corrosive effect” that continuing Israeli settlements are having on the prospect for a Palestinian state, said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
A senior USA official told reporters afterwards those concerns included the “corrosive effect” settlement activity during 50 years of occupation had had on prospects for negotiating peace based on two states, Israeli and Palestinian.
The White House recently backed up that pledge with a very generous $38 billion aid package to Israel to boost their defenses. Yet Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces said Wednesday the U.S. The Hebron area in particular grew as the epicenter of upheaval, with Israeli authorities severely restricting the movement of Palestinians in parts of its Old City as a “closed military zone” for several months, while July’s closures on Hebron saw the most widespread restrictions on movement in the occupied West Bank in two years. The worldwide community has criticized Israel for the settlement construction, asserting that the land actually belongs to Palestine, The New York Times reports.
“My hope is we can continue to be an effective partner in Israel in finding a path to peace”, Obama said. What he did say made neither Israelis nor Palestinians happy.
“We want to make sure that Israel has the full capabilities it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe and secure”, Obama said of the memorandum.
“We’ll set up a tee time”, replied Mr. Obama, in what appeared to be a mere pleasantry. 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.
The White House has conceded that talks aren’t likely to resume while Obama remains in office but has remained open to the possibility the President could take steps in the next months to ramp up pressure on both sides to work toward a two-state solution.
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“Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a unsafe neighbourhood”, Obama said in a written statement last week.
