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Netanyahu Says Israel Ready For 'Painful Compromises'

May 24, 2011

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said Israel would never give up its quest for peace with the Palestinians and was ready to make "painful compromises" to achieve it.

Netanyahu said Israel would be generous with the size of a Palestinian state.

But he warned that Israel could not return to the borders which existed in 1967, as U.S. President Barack Obama has insisted should be the basis for negotiations.

Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu hailed U.S.-Israeli relations, saying: "In an unstable Middle East, Israel is the one anchor of stability. In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America's unwavering ally."

Netanyahu, who enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress, also thanked Barack Obama for his "steadfast" support in ensuring Israel's security.

The comments come days after he opened a rift with the U.S. president over the direction of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

On May 20, Netanyahu rejected Obama's call to base the borders of a future Palestinian state along Israel's pre-1967 lines, with agreed land swaps, saying the 1967 borders were "indefensible."

He reiterated this stance in his address to Congress.

In his speech, Netanyahu also restated Israel's refusal to entertain the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their families to land in Israel and maintained that Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital, "must remain the united capital of Israel."

He also urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to tear up a pact with the militant group Hamas, and said a unilateral bid for Palestinian statehood must be opposed.

Following the address, Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters news agency: "What came in Netanyahu's speech will not lead to peace."

compiled from agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/netanyahu_says_israel_ready_for_painful_compromises/24194927.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.