President Obama: Israel, Palestinians both need make efforts for peace

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BY Richard Sisk
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - President Obama brushed off Israel's rejection Thursday of his call for an end to Jewish settlement activity on the West Bank.

Obama, while refusing to take no for an answer, cast Israel's decision as a short-term political move by new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to gain support at home.

"I was very clear about the need to stop settlements" in his talks with Netanyahu earlier this month, Obama said, but "obviously (Netanyahu) has to work through these issues" with his own shaky coalition.

The hard-line Israeli stance on settlements threatened to upstage Obama's White House talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who had put halting settlements at the top of his agenda for the meeting.

With Abbas seated at his side in the Oval Office, Obama left Netanyahu wiggle room to come around on settlements while also citing the longstanding U.S. call for a "two-state solution" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a position Netanyahu has yet to endorse.

Netanyahu would come to realize that an independent Palestinian state living in peace with a secure Israel "was in the interests of the Israeli people," Obama said.

Speaking in Arabic, Abbas said, "I believe the Israelis will withdraw" eventually from the West Bank, and in return the "Arab world will be ready to have a normal relationship with Israel."

The timing of Israel's rebuff on settlements frustrated State Department officials.

"The settlements must stop. I mean, that's - it just couldn't be more clear," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.

The Israelis were reacting to the warning a day earlier from Secretary of State Clinton that the U.S. would not accept lawyerly exceptions on the settlements, which now house about 180,000 Israelis on the West Bank.

Obama wanted all settlements halted and "not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions," Clinton said.

In Tel Aviv, Mark Regev, chief spokesman for Netanyahu, said, "Israel will abide by its commitments not to build new settlements and to dismantle unauthorized outposts."

As for existing settlements, "normal life must be allowed to continue in these communities," Regev said. The U.S. interprets "normal life," or "natural growth" as a green light for more building and expansion.

The meeting with Abbas was the latest in a round of sitdowns Obama has held at the White House with Mideast leaders, including Netanyahu, ahead of his ballyhooed address to the Muslim world from Cairo next Thursday.

White House officials have stressed that the speech would be limited to broad themes, but Obama said Thursday that the specifics of his overall plan for the region would also come into play.

"Middle East peace is something that's going to be addressed," he said.

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