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This Time, No Call to Halt Settlements Obama Urges Young Israelis to Lead the Push for Peace
(about 3 hours later)
RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Obama, visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appeared to move closer to the Israeli position on Thursday regarding resumption of long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, stopping short of insisting on a halt to Israel’s settlement expansion as he had done early in his first term. JERUSALEM — President Obama, appealing to very disparate audiences to solve one of the world’s thorniest problems, moved closer on Thursday to the Israeli government’s position on resuming long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, even as he passionately implored young Israelis to get ahead of their own leaders in the push for peace.
Hours after rockets from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza hit southern Israel, Mr. Obama met with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on the second day of Mr. Obama’s Middle East trip, and challenged both sides to resume face-to-face talks, pledging that the United States “would do our part.” Addressing an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000, Mr. Obama offered a fervent, unsparing case for why a peace agreement was both morally just and in Israel’s self-interest. Younger Israelis, Mr. Obama said, should empathize with their Palestinian neighbors living under occupation — or, as he put it, “look at the world through their eyes.”
Mr. Obama condemned the rocket attacks, which came in violation of a three-month cease-fire, but he insisted that the Israelis should not use violence as an excuse to avoid negotiations, no more than the Palestinians should insist that Israel halt construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a condition. Hours earlier, visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Mr. Obama urged the Palestinians to return to the bargaining table even if Israel did not meet their condition of halting construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories — a demand he, too, made at the start of his first term, but which had only a temporary, partial impact.
“If we’re going to be successful, part of what we’re going to have to do is get out of the formulas and habits that have blocked progress,” Mr. Obama said in a news conference with Mr. Abbas. “Both sides are going to have to think anew.” It was a striking mix of big-stage inspiration and closed-door compromise: with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Obama was laboring to nudge two stubborn adversaries; with a younger generation, he was going over the two men’s heads, seeking to stir popular enthusiasm for his vision of peace.
Mr. Abbas reiterated his demand that Israel halt settlement construction, but he did not explicitly cite that as a condition for entering into direct talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Talks have basically been stalled since 2010. Yet it also attested to the intractable nature of Middle East peacemaking over the past decade. By not renewing his demand that Israel halt settlement construction to get a new round of talks started, Mr. Obama was, in effect, conceding that years of careful study about how to nudge the peace process forward had failed to produce tangible results.
“It is the duty of the Israeli government to at least halt the activity, so we can speak of the issues,” Mr. Abbas said in Arabic, speaking through a translator. “The issue of settlements is clear: we never gave up our vision, whether now or previously.” “Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do,” Mr. Obama said, in tones reminiscent of his own political campaigns at home. “You must create the change that you want to see.”
Mr. Abbas, who met with Mr. Obama for more than an hour at the fortresslike headquarters of the Palestinian Authority here, did not condemn the rocket attacks in his statement. Standing before a blue-and-white banner emblazoned with the emblem of the Israeli state — a menorah flanked by olive branches — Mr. Obama spoke of the past and the future, from the biblical story of Exodus and from Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, to Israel’s reputation as a high-tech incubator with a mania for social media.
Majlis Shura al-Mujahedeen, a Salafi group, claimed responsibility for the rockets, saying in a statement that they were a message from “Bin Laden soldiers” to Mr. Obama that Americans should not feel secure as long as Muslims do not. “Israel,” he said to prolonged applause, “is rooted not just in history and tradition, but also in a simple and profound idea: the idea that people deserve to be free in a land of their own.”
For Mr. Obama, even a brief foray to the West Bank on the second day of his trip was enough to plunge him back into the diplomatic nuances and perils of Middle East peacemaking. Mr. Obama’s warm reception, after a polite but formal welcome by Mr. Netanyahu, recalled a visit by the Israeli prime minister to Washington in May 2011. Mr. Netanyahu, after rebuffing a peace proposal by Mr. Obama, spoke to Congress, receiving 29 standing ovations.
What was surprising, given how much Mr. Obama appeared to give up on the peace process at the end of his first term, was how ready he seemed to take up the challenge once again of trying to broker a deal that creates a Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel. This week, Mr. Obama avoided proposals but promised that his administration would do its part to advance the process. He is sending Secretary of State John Kerry back to Israel from Jordan on Saturday to meet again with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas to discuss next steps.
“I absolutely believe it is still possible, but it is very difficult,” Mr. Obama said. “If we can get direct negotiations started again, I believe the shape of a potential deal is there.” The president’s new activism, on the second day of a four-day trip to the Middle East, came hours after rockets from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza hit southern Israel. He condemned the attacks, which broke a three-month cease-fire, but said that the Israelis should not use the violence as an excuse to avoid negotiations.
Gesturing to his new secretary of state, John Kerry, Mr. Obama said the United States would resume its role of trying to bring together the two sides — a painstaking process that has previously involved adopting measures to get over decades of mistrust. “If we’re going to succeed, part of what we’re going to have to do is to get out of some of the formulas and habits that have blocked progress for so long,” Mr. Obama said, as Mr. Abbas stood next to him somberly. “Both sides are going to have to think anew.”
Mr. Obama repeated his criticism of Jewish settlements, particularly in the strategically sensitive area of the West Bank known as the E1 zone. If the Israeli government were to go through with its announcement that it plans to develop that area, east of Jerusalem, Mr. Obama said it would be “very difficult to square with a two-state solution.” For his part, Mr. Abbas reiterated the Palestinian demand that Israel stop settlement construction. But he did not explicitly cite that as a precondition for entering into face-to-face talks with Mr. Netanyahu. Such talks have been quiescent since 2010.
But Mr. Obama did not explicitly call for a halt to such expansion as a condition for peace talks to resume. “It is the duty of the Israeli government to at least halt the activity, so we can speak of the issues,” Mr. Abbas said in Arabic, speaking through an interpreter. “The issue of settlements is clear: we never gave up our vision, whether now or previously.”
The rockets from Gaza, which caused no injuries, exploded in the courtyard of a house in the border town Sderot, which Mr. Obama had visited as a presidential candidate in 2008 and which he often cites as an example of the terror inflicted by these rockets. There are signs that Mr. Abbas may be ready to return to negotiations with the Israelis. A draft copy of his talking points for the session with Mr. Obama, obtained by The New York Times, suggested that he was prepared to soften his long-held demand that Mr. Netanyahu publicly halt all building of settlements in favor of private assurances.
“I’ve stood in Sderot, and met with children who simply want to grow up free from fear,” he said in a news conference Wednesday with Mr. Netanyahu. A senior administration official declined to discuss details of the meeting between Mr. Obama and Mr. Abbas.
Reporting was contributed by Alan Cowell from Paris, Isabel Kershner and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem, Fares Akram from Gaza and Rina Castelnuovo from Sderot, Israel. Reporting was contributed by Rick Gladstone in New York; Isabel Kershner and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; Fares Akram from Gaza; Rina Castelnuovo from Sderot, Israel; and Alan Cowell from Paris.