Thursday, June 9, 2011

Obama doubles down, says German Chancellor Merkel supports his basis for Israeli-Palestinian talks. If so, a change for her, per Der Spiegel

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6/8/11, "US to push bill denying UN aid if state recognized," Jerusalem Post, Hilary Leila Krieger

"
...President Barack Obama on Tuesday reiterated his disapproval of such a move (UN General Assembly voting on Palestinian statehood).

Standing beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a White House press conference, Obama said, “We agree that unilateral actions – such as Palestinians seeking a vote on statehood at the UN General Assembly – should be avoided.”

He also said that Merkel supported “the principles that I laid out last month as the basis for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” which included the position that the pre- 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps should serve as the basis for a Palestinian state."...

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Surprising in that Der Spiegel said this week Chancellor Merkel strongly opposed the manner in which Obama has handled the Israeli-Palestinian situation:

6/6/11, "What's Gone Wrong with German-US Relations?" Der Spiegel

"Berlin views Obama's actions related to the Middle East conflict as particularly damaging. The government reportedly believes that Obama's most fundamental misstep came last September when he spoke before the UN General Assembly and predicted that a Palestinian state would be welcomed as a new member of the global community within a year. In Berlin, many feel it only served to foster unreasonable expectations among Palestinians -- and to anger the Israelis.

Merkel also resents Obama for having initially spoken out against intervening in Libya and then allowing pressure from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other advisers to change his mind. She believes that Obama did not give enough thought to the consequences of intervening in Libya and that doing so ended up putting Germany in an awkward position."...




via Lucianne.com

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