Obama: Stalled peace process makes it harder for U.S. to defend Israel at UN
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.659331
Netanyahu's statements included "so many caveats, so many conditions, that it is not realistic to think that those conditions would be met anytime in the near future," Obama said. "The danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility, " he added. "Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution. The statement the prime minister made compounded this belief."
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"Let's be very specific" regarding the "practical consequence that I referred to [in the Goldberg interview]," Obama said to Dayan: "Up until this point we have pushed away against European efforts for example, or other efforts. Because we've said, the only way this gets resolved is if the two parties worked together," said Obama. "Well, here's the challenge. If in fact, there's no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there's a peace process, then it becomes more difficult, to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction, those who are concerned about the current situation, it's more difficult for me to say to them, 'Be patient. Wait, because we have a process here,' because all they need to do is to point to the statements that have been made to say, 'There is no process.'"
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"There's no doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu and I come from different political traditions and have different orientations. I am less worried about any particular disagreement that I have with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I am more worried about Israeli politics that's motivated only by fear. And that then leads to a loss of those core values that, when I was young and I was admiring Israel from afar, were the essence of this nation. There are things that you can lose, that don't just involve rockets."
Obama said Netanyahu is "skeptical about the capacity of Israelis and Palestinians to come together on behalf of peace," but added: "I think that he is also a politician who's concerned about keeping coalitions together and maintaining his office."
