Obama and Netanyahu hold fence-mending talks
US President,
Barack Obama, voiced hope in a fence-mending meeting on Tuesday with
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that direct Israeli-Palestinian talks
would begin before a limited settlement moratorium ends in September.
“We expect
proximity talks to lead to direct talks,” Obama said as he and
Netanyahu appeared before reporters in the Oval Office. The joint
appearance was intended to display warmer relations after ties reached
a low point in March in a feud over Israeli settlement expansion.
Netanyahu echoed
Obama, who said he hoped direct negotiations would get under way “well
before” a 10-month Israeli freeze on new housing starts in West Bank
settlements expires in September.
Netanyahu has
called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to meet him and move from
the current U.S.-mediated “proximity talks” to face-to-face
negotiations on Palestinian statehood.
It was “high time,”
Netanyahu said, to begin direct talks. Obama said he hoped
confidence-building measures by both sides would help ease the way to
such negotiations.
Palestinian leaders
say the slow-moving indirect talks have not made enough progress to
justify a return to direct negotiations suspended since late 2008.
A big question hanging over the fragile peace process is whether Netanyahu will extend the settlement expansion moratorium.
He agreed to the
limited freeze only under pressure from Obama. Its extension could
widen cracks in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, dominated by
pro-settler parties including his own.
It was a warmer
White House welcome for Netanyahu than during his previous visit in
March. As journalists filed into the Oval Office, the two leaders sat
side-by-side, leaning toward each other, chatting and smiling.
In what was widely
viewed as a snub, there was no photo-op for Netanyahu at the March
meeting amid U.S. anger over an announcement, during a visit to Israel
by Vice President Joe Biden, of plans to build 1,600 more homes for
Jews in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.
The rare chill in relations has thawed recently with Obama shifting
to a gentler tone and Netanyahu offering conciliatory gestures,
including easing Israel’s Gaza blockade after a deadly raid on an aid
flotilla on May 31.
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