Mr. Obama also said the USA has “concerns about settlement activity” by the Israelis on the West Bank, a major source of friction in starting peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.
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U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, allies who nonetheless have had a testy relationship, said Wednesday that their two countries have an “unbreakable bond”.
Mr. Obama doesn’t plan to try to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which broke down in 2014, but is considering outlining a framework for talks before leaving office in January, White House officials have said. Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have no plans to meet this week at the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
The mere fact that the two leaders are talking demonstrates that the relationship has rebounded from its lowest point, when when Netanyahu gave an address to Congress lobbying against the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
Cruz in a statement said he rejected the language in the letter’s opening that “the only way to resolve the conflicts between the two is through direct negotiations that lead to a sustainable two-state solution with a future state of Palestine living in peace and security with Israel”. Hours before his meeting with Obama, Turkish officials shot and slightly wounded an attacker armed with a knife who tried to enter the Israeli Embassy in Turkey, Turkish officials said.
Netanyahu was in NY at a time of renewed violence, including a series of stabbings by Palestinian assailants in Israel and other incidents that have raised concerns about a return to more frequent bloodshed. “It is a very hard and risky time in the Middle East and we want to make sure Israel has full capabilities to keep the Israeli people safe”.
Palestinians say Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory is dimming any prospect for the viable state they seek, with a capital in Arab East Jerusalem. “It’s a very hard and unsafe time in the Middle East”. “But Israel must recognize that it can not permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land”.
In public, Mr Obama and Mr Netanyahu spent most of their time touting a 10-year military assistance deal their countries struck this month worth 38 billion dollars, the largest tranche of military aid the USA has ever given another country. He is also apparently undecided on whether the United States would support, or veto, a new UN Security Council resolution on the issue.
Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force and say that some of those killed posed no threat or had no intention of attacking anyone.
A US official who tracks the issue said he does not expect the White House to decide whether Obama might make a speech on the issue or seek to pass a new U.N. Security Council resolution, until Americans elect his successor.
Before the meeting, Obama told reporters that they would discuss the Syrian Civil War, Israeli security and the West Bank.
The President is intent on conferring solid ties to Israel upon his successor, despite the personal animus that developed between him and his Israeli counterpart.
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In the meantime, Israel launched a third, massive offensive in Gaza (more than 2,200 Palestinians killed; whole city blocks reduced to rubble), the past year has seen a precipitous rise in Palestinian attacks on Israelis (32 killed in the last 12 months, alongside 230 Palestinians killed by Israelis), and the US has condemned this or taken issue with that, but for the most part, kept its distance.
