QUESTION:
Mr. President you have been criticized and even (inaudible) attacked
for the U.N. Security Council resolution that considered Israeli
settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. Mr. Trump promised to move
the embassy to Jerusalem. He appointed an ambassador that doesn’t
believe in a two-state solution.
How
worried are you about the U.S. leadership in the Arab world and beyond
as (inaudible)? With this ignite (inaudible) protect Israel? And in
retrospect, do you think that you should have held Israel more
accountable, like President Bush Senior did with (inaudible)? Thank you.
OBAMA:
I am — I continue to be significantly worried about the
Israeli-Palestinian issue. And I’m worried about it both because I think
the status quo is unsustainable, that it is dangerous for Israel, that
it is bad for Palestinians, it is bad for the region and it is bad for
America’s national security.
And you know, I came into this office wanting to do everything I could
to encourage serious peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. And
we invested a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of effort first year,
second year, all the way until last year. Ultimately, what has always
been clear is that we cannot force the parties to arrive at peace. What
we can do is facilitate, provide a platform, encourage, but we can’t
force them to do it. But in light of shifts in Israeli politics and
Palestinian politics, a rightward drift in Israeli politics, weakening
of President Abbas’ ability to move and take risks on behalf of peace in
the Palestinian territories.
In
light of all the dangers that have emerged in the region and the
understandable fears that Israelis may have about the chaos and rise of
groups like ISIL and the deterioration of Syria, in light of all those
things, what we at least wanted to do, understanding that the two
parties wouldn’t actually arrive at a final status agreement, is to
preserve the possibility of the two-state solution because we do not see
an alternative to it.
And
I’ve said this directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’ve said it
inside of Israel, I’ve said it to Palestinians as well. I don’t see how
this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish
and a democracy. Because if you do not have two states, then in some
form or fashion you are extending an occupation, functionally you end up
having one state in which millions of people are disenfranchised and
operate as second class residents.
You
can’t even call them citizens necessarily. And so - so the goal of the
resolution was to simply say that the settlements, the growth of the
settlements are creating a reality on the ground that increasingly will
make a two-state solution impossible. And we’ve believed consistent with
the position that has been taken with previous U.S. administrations for
decades now that it was important for us to send a signal, a wakeup
call that this moment may be passing.
And
Israeli voters and Palestinians need to understand that this moment may
be passing. And - and hopefully, that then creates a debate inside both
Israeli and Palestinian communities that won’t result immediately in
peace but at least will lead to a more sober assessment of what the
alternatives are. So, the president-elect will have his own policy. The
ambassador or the candidate for the ambassadorship obviously has very
different views than I do.
That
is their prerogative, that’s part of what happens after elections, and I
think my views are clear. We’ll see how - how their approach plays
itself out. I don’t want to - I don’t want to project today what could
end up happening but obviously it’s a volatile environment. What we’ve
seen in the past is when sudden unilateral moves are made that speak to
some of the core issues and sensitivities of either side, that can be
explosive.
And
what we’ve tried to do in the transition is just provide the context in
which the president-elect may want to make some of these decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment