Barack Obama won repeated rounds of applause and a standing ovation on Sunday at the annual conference of the biggest American-Israeli lobbying group after setting out his Middle East plan.
There were a scattering of boos in the audience, which the lobbying group estimated at about 10Â 000, but these were largely drowned out by polite applause. Officials of the lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had pleaded with those attending to treat the president with respect: sustained and loud booing would have been a public relations disaster.
Lee Rosenberg, president of AIPAC and a friend of Obama’s from Chicago, began the conference with a plea to the audience for all speakers to be treated as if they were visitors to their homes.
Obama did not back away from his comments made last week about future peace negotiations being based on the border that existed in 1967 before the Arab-Israeli war that saw Israel take East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The comments appear to have enraged the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister is scheduled to address AIPAC on Monday and Congress on Tuesday.
Speaking at AIPAC before Obama, a Democratic congressman, Steny Hoyer, did his president few favours by playing to the audience and distancing himself from Obama by saying that Israel’s borders had to be defensible. Netanyahu last week described the 1967 border as indefensible.
The standing ovation for Hoyer’s comment was louder and sounded more enthusiastic than the later one for Obama. Members of the audience interviewed at random after the president’s speech had mixed views about how committed Obama is to Israel.
‘We cannot afford to wait another decade’
Obama told the AIPAC conference that time was running out for Israel to reach a deal with the Palestinians, given the changing demographics that favoured the Palestinians.
Referring to the 1967 comment, he said: “If there’s a controversy, then, it’s not based in substance. What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately. I have done so because we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace.”
He was applauded for that. He went on: “The world is moving too fast. The extraordinary challenges facing Israel would only grow. Delay will undermine Israel’s security and the peace that the Israeli people deserve.”
He began his speech with words aimed at placating the audience, stressing that the US commitment to Israel is “ironclad”. He said that his comments about the 1967 border with mutually-agreed land swaps had been misrepresented by some. It has long been the US position.
Netanyahu may explain over the next two days why he was so exercised about the issue.
Obama said on Sunday that the 1967 border would only be a starting point: “By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. That is what mutually agreed swaps means. It is a well known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides. The ultimate goal is two states for two peoples.”
Obama has been fund-raising heavily for his re-election campaign next year and Jewish donors are a big source of cash. The president acknowledged this: “I know very well that the easy thing to do, particularly for a president preparing for re-election, is to avoid any controversy. But as I said to prime minister Netanyahu, I believe that the current situation in the Middle East does not allow for procrastination. I also believe that real friends talk openly and honestly with one another.” He won a round of applause for that too. – guardian.co.uk