New York – President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday he had concerns about Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and hoped the United States could still help to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
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“Clearly there is great danger of not just terrorism but also flare-ups of violence,” Obama said at the start of what was likely to be his last meeting as president with Netanyahu. Obama leaves office in January.
“We do have concerns around settlement activity as well. And our hope is that we can continue to be an effective partner with Israel in finding a path to peace,” Obama told reporters as the two leaders met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
Netanyahu, who has had a rocky relationship with Obama, said he appreciated their many talks about challenges facing Israel. Netanyahu has led Israel for all but about the first two months of Obama’s nearly eight years in office.
“The greatest challenge is of course the unremitting fanaticism. The greatest opportunity is to advance … peace. That’s a goal that I and the people of Israel will never give up on,” Netanyahu said.
“We’ve been fortunate that in pursuing these two tasks, Israel has no greater friend than the United States of America.”
The two leaders spoke to reporters before they met.
Afterwards, a senior U.S. official told reporters they had spoken about Israeli-Palestinian relations, a spike in violence and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, home to more than 2.7 million Palestinians.
The official said the talks also included “continuing Israeli settlement activity as Israel enters the 15th year of its occupation and profound U.S. concerns about the corrosive effect that that is having on the prospect for two states.”
The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state in the occupied West Bank along with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Obama made reference to a $38 billion military assistance agreement signed by the two allies on Sept. 14.
“It is a very difficult and dangerous time in the Middle East, and we want to make sure that Israel has the full capabilities it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe,” Obama said.
The package constitutes the most U.S. military aid ever given to any country, enabling Israel to upgrade most of its fighter aircraft, improve its ground forces’ mobility and strengthen its missile defense systems, a senior U.S. official said last week.
Most countries view Israeli West Bank settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace. Israel rejects this, saying Jews have been living in the territory for thousands of years.
In addition to its estimate of 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the CIA Factbook online cites about 371,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank as of July 2015. Neither figure includes East Jerusalem, which both sides claim.
Obuma has been the biggest stumbling block to peace in the middle was since he took office 8 years ago.
Me think that Obama probably has a soft spot to Muslims. He also probably has a soft spot to Jews in general.
Nixon rescued Israel in 1973 and we all know by now how he disliked Jews. Point,a president of the USA can still like or dislike Jews and have different politics towards Israel.
Netanyahu as smart as he is met his match in Obama. In fact Obama is way more powerful and smarter than Chutzpa’niak Netanyahu.
True Torah observant Jews have nothing in common with the Zionist ideology and the sate of Israel. According to the Torah,Talmud and the Rishonim it is forbidden for Jews to have a land before the coming of Moshicah. This was the view of all real Gedolim prior ww2. To get a clear picture how dangerous it is to have a Jewish state it is a must to learn the Sefer Vayoel Moshe of the great Satmar Rebbe.
Waste of time, if bibi doesnt listen to hashem he will never listen to our honorble president obama.
so glad to see the end of this tyrants era. I can report I lived through 8 years of this guys (don’t like to say his name) reign to my progeny. Cant wait for Trump the savior.
Take a trip to Eretz Yisrael and watch the country flourish. Shuls, schools, batey midrash, farms, orchards, cities, trains, planes, children, old people. If this is not a miracle before your eyes, I am so sorry for you. We need Hashem’s continued blessings. Make no mistake, H”KBH runs the world.
OH yes, Mr. President, you’re so right, the main problem threatening the whole world is Israeli “settlements,” not islamic terrorism. What a phony traitor this lowlife is…can’t wait till he’s history. Trump 2016
Hashem saved Israel in 1973 not Nixon & Hashem will save Israel forever!!!!
It’s still good to bye to a Muslim president who DISLIKES ISRAEL.
Israel is not on “occupied” land. All of Israel was given to Bnei Yisroel by Hashem thousands of years ago even before there was a Muslim prophet……..
The NK reps here need to go away. I refer specifically to Maven, ALTERG3, ayinglefundorf. Your rants are full of denial, hate, and frank falsehood. No, I’m not a bleeding Zionist, but I can’t detect a whiff of Ahavas Yisroel in anything you folks have written. You are all disgraceful. With what semblance of achdus will you approach your tefilos on Rosh Hashanah? Hypocrites. There is time left for teshuvah.
The Satmar Rov ZT”L cried when the blood of an Israeli soldier was spilled. He was not in favor of terror, murder of Israelis, or any of the hate stuff that the Muslims perpetrate, that Obama y”sh and you guys support. If you wish to manifest this hate, get away from Klal Yisroel. There is no place for you.
There has never been a politician in the White House whose behavior was as anti-Jewish and anti-Israel as Obama. Nixon did what was right, despite his bigotry feelings. No one should listen to Obama, ever. He has been a disgrace to democracy and morality. As a terror supporter, his policies need to be eradicated, and the damage he has wreaked so far undone. We cannot afford a Democrat in the White House.
You guys are a bizayon and a chilul Hashem.
Yet he doesn’t care about the 10+ million illegals in this country.
What a fool this man is. No wonder he has no credibility at home and abroad. He will go down as arguably one of the worst presidents of all time.
“Obama made reference to a $38 billion military assistance agreement signed by the two allies on Sept. 14.
“It is a very difficult and dangerous time in the Middle East, and we want to make sure that Israel has the full capabilities it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe,” Obama said.
The package constitutes the most U.S. military aid ever given to any country, enabling Israel to upgrade most of its fighter aircraft, improve its ground forces’ mobility and strengthen its missile defense systems, a senior U.S. official said last week.
And with all that military aid, yotses on this site still curse Obama.
For shame !
taking issue with settlement building is purely anti-semitism. it’s not anti-israel since the ‘settlers’ are supposedly not in Israel (“occupied territories”), it’s anti-Jew. The arabs and the liberals are objecting to Jews living in a territory [that they argue is outside of Israel].
Certainly no one objects to “Israeli” arabs moving to the west bank.
Preventing Jews from living there, or anywhere else, on the grounds that they are Jews [“Israelis”] is anti-semitism, plain and simple.