Obama Made Secret Promises to Israel, Palestinians Over Peace Talks

Contents of 'Letters of Assurance' Will Remain Classified

President Obama presented “letters of assurance” to the negotiating teams for both Israel and the Palestinian Authority today containing a series of promises with respect to US policy in an attempt to fuel peace talks, according to Israeli officials.

Those familiar with the Israeli letter say that it included a pledge that the US would not support the 1967 borders, that the US declares Israel a permanently “Jewish state,” and that the US opposes any right of return to Israel, believing all refugees should settle in the future Palestinian state.

All of those pledges are entirely speculative at this point, however, and what promises were included in the Palestinian letter are entirely a mystery, as the Obama Administration has declared the contents of the letters “classified” and won’t disclose what promises were actually made.

Secret letters are nothing new for the US in this seemingly endless conflict, with Israeli officials loudly throwing a secret Bush promise that Israel would get to keep major settlement blocks back in Obama’s face in recent weeks. This suggests that sooner or later we’ll here what was promised, though it may not be until after Obama’s term in office ends.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.