Politico...
Benjamin Netanyahu
wows Congress
By Jonathan Allen
In a muscular and well-received address to a joint session of Congress
Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the case for
why his nation should not return to its pre-1967 borders as part of a
future peace agreement with Palestinians — a question over which he has
jousted with President Barack Obama in the past week.
Speaking to a House chamber packed with lawmakers — rather than the
usual complement of aides and student pages who fill in the back rows
when foreign leaders visit — Netanyahu told Congress that any two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must take into account
“the dramatic demographic changes” that have occurred since 1967, when
Israel won territory and unified Jerusalem in the Six Day War.
“Jerusalem must never again be divided,” Netanyahu said, echoing what
he said in a 1996 speech to a joint session. He said that Israel would
be “generous on the size of the Palestinian state” but will be careful
about “where we put the border.”
Vice President Joe Biden, seated behind Netanyahu, did not applaud at
the leader’s line on Jerusalem that won rousing support from Congress.
Netanyahu was interrupted by bipartisan standing ovations 29 times
during a speech that ran about 40 minutes.
The remarks were not as well received by Palestinian officials: One
told The Associated Press that the path to peace outlined by Netanyahu
amounted to a “declaration of war.”
Netanyahu, who was criticized for appearing to lecture Obama on the
precariousness of the Jewish state during a visit to the White House
last week, took no swipe at Obama. That would have been bad form in
front of Congress. Indeed, he even appeared to reach out at one point,
noting that “as President Obama said, the border will be different than
the one that existed on June 4, 1967.”
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