President Obama Visits Israel and the West Bank
March 21, 2013
President Barack Obama arrived in Israel yesterday for a state visit and said upon his arrival that, “I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations.” Although the president declared that “peace must come to the Holy Land,” little was expected on efforts to restart the peace process. International affairs experts suggested that the Syrian civil war and Iran’s nuclear ambitions would dominate talks between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While in Israel, President Obama discussed the lack of progress made towards a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Obama told Israeli officials that the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank was not considered by the United States “to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace.” The West Bank, a land between Israel and Jordan, was historically a part of Palestine. The West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950. In 1967, Israel defeated Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in the Six-Day War and captured the West Bank. In 1994, Israel began a withdrawal from the West Bank after a peace accord between Israel and Palestinians was signed the previous year. In 2002, however, Israel began reoccupying many West Bank areas after Israel and the Palestinian Authority failed to reach a final peace agreement. The Israeli settlements in the West Bank have complicated efforts to implement a “two-state solution,” that is, statehood for Palestine and Israel, with each state recognizing the other. The West Bank is nearly divided in two by settlements.
After speaking in Israel, President Obama today visited the West Bank. In Ramallah, Obama restated that the Palestinians deserve a state of their own. The president went on to declare that the only way that could occur was with “direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis themselves.” The Palestinians have demanded that Israelis put a freeze on building settlements before negotiations begin.
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