pbel
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- Feb 26, 2012
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BBC News - Frank words from Obama in Israel
Before President Obama left Washington his staff made it clear that he would not be bringing a new peace plan with him.
When Air Force One landed at Tel Aviv airport, the president said he had come to Jerusalem and Ramallah to listen to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
But on his second afternoon, in a set piece speech to young Israelis in Jerusalem's main conference centre, he laid out where he believed both Israel and the Palestinians should be going.
The only good future for both peoples, President Obama said, had to include an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. His young Israeli audience clapped enthusiastically.
The continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories that the Palestinians want for their state was, he said, counterproductive to the cause of peace, and Israelis had to realise that...
...
He asked his audience to put themselves in the shoes of a Palestinian child, growing up without a state, living in the presence of a foreign army controlling the movements of their parents.
It is not fair, he said, when violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians goes unpunished, when Palestinian farmers cannot work their lands, when Palestinians are displaced from their homes.
And the Israeli audience, not all of them but very many, applauded loudly again. It was classic Obama, reminiscent of his first run for President, when he used his skill with words to create a mood.
Polls show Israelis want peace via Palestinian independence, but don't believe it can happen. President Obama tried to make them believe...
Before President Obama left Washington his staff made it clear that he would not be bringing a new peace plan with him.
When Air Force One landed at Tel Aviv airport, the president said he had come to Jerusalem and Ramallah to listen to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
But on his second afternoon, in a set piece speech to young Israelis in Jerusalem's main conference centre, he laid out where he believed both Israel and the Palestinians should be going.
The only good future for both peoples, President Obama said, had to include an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. His young Israeli audience clapped enthusiastically.
The continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories that the Palestinians want for their state was, he said, counterproductive to the cause of peace, and Israelis had to realise that...
...
He asked his audience to put themselves in the shoes of a Palestinian child, growing up without a state, living in the presence of a foreign army controlling the movements of their parents.
It is not fair, he said, when violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians goes unpunished, when Palestinian farmers cannot work their lands, when Palestinians are displaced from their homes.
And the Israeli audience, not all of them but very many, applauded loudly again. It was classic Obama, reminiscent of his first run for President, when he used his skill with words to create a mood.
Polls show Israelis want peace via Palestinian independence, but don't believe it can happen. President Obama tried to make them believe...
