THE PRESIDENT MOVES TOWARD A EUROPEAN NONSOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS
Most commentary on the section of President Obama’s May 19 speech dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process has focused on his vision of borders along the 1967 lines with certain adjustments and land swaps. Mention of the 1967 lines is not insignificant. Security Council Resolution 242 as drafted by the US and Britain implicitly recognized that Israel would keep some territory captured from Arab aggressors in 1967. As President Johnson said at the time an Israeli return to its position as of June 4 1967 would not be a “prescription for peace but for renewed hostilities.”
And the Obama administration has added tension to any mention of the 1967 lines by treating so-called “east Jerusalem” in which several hundred thousand Jews currently live as no different from West Bank settlements.
But the really significant parts of the president’s speech lay elsewhere. In calling for a “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces” from the entire West Bank he ruled out a permanent Israeli security presence in the Jordan Rift Valley. Yet without such a presence Israel is indefensible and renders the president’s support for an Israel that can “defend itself — by itself — against any threat” a mockery.
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