US President Barrack Obama has reaffirmed his US administration’s “unbreakable” bonds with Israel and described differences between him and the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as “purely tactical”. Obama made the comments at a Democratic “Friends of Israel” event where he was fundraising for his upcoming 2012 campaign for a second 4 year presidential term.
US President Barrack Obama has described differences between Israel and the US on ways of moving the peace process forward are “purely tactical” and that the bond between the two countries was “unbreakable”. Obama said that “Israel is our closest ally and friend, it is a robust democracy, it shares our values and it shares our principles’.
Obama emphasized his belief of the need to be creative in formulating a lasting solution given changed circumstances due to the “Arab Spring”. “It’s not going to be sufficient for us just to keep on doing the same things we’ve been doing and expect somehow that things are going to work themselves out”.
Obama repeated comments that he desired to see a situation “where [Israeli] kids can get on the bus or go to bed at night and not have to worry about missiles landing on them”.
Similar comments made at Obama’s AIPAC speech in May were criticized as ignoring the plight of Palestinian minors who are routinely arrested in the middle of the night and roughly interrogated and interned.
The US President was involved in a public disagreement with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in May when Obama suggested that Israel must return to its 1967 borders as part of any long term peace. The statements were fiercely criticized by Netanyahu who said that Israel’s 1967 borders were ‘indefensible’.
The event was attended by 80 people paying between 25,000 USD and 35,800 USD per head.
