Little Progress as Obama, Netanyahu Meet

Obama Calls for Two-State Solution, Netanyahu "Confident" of Right to Move Against Iran

by Jason Ditz, May 18, 2009

Four hours of dialogue between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama appears to have yielded little in the way of agreement on the major issues of discussion. The two appear to have come to little consensus on the question of Iran or the question of Palestinian peace talks.

President Obama pressed for the two-state solution, though Netanyahu was willing only to grant that it was possible to allow the Palestinians “to govern themselves, absent a handful of powers that could endanger the State of Israel.” Even as this was happening, MPs in Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party were gathering opposition to Palestinian statehood. It appears that even if Prime Minister Netanyahu is eventually brought around on the issue he will have stiff opposition.

On the question of Iran, Netanyahu says he got “no green, red or yellow lights” from the US, but did claim that he was “confident” in Israel’s right to defend itself, presumably referring to the long-threatened Israeli attack on the Iranian nation’s civilian nuclear program. President Obama was unwilling to yield to Netanyahu’s call for a deadline to the Iran talks, but reportedly did assure that “we’re not going to have talks forever.”

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