RAMALLAH, May 21 (JMCC) - Unlike Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing supporters of Israel, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, a major pro-Israel group in the US, has said he saw a lot of positives in United States President Barack Obama's
Thursday speech on the Middle East.
Speaking
to the Washington Post, Abraham Foxman said that Obama's call for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders was not an edict, but a vision for how negotiations should proceed.
“I don’t see this as the president throwing Israel under the bus,” he told me. “He’s saying with `swaps.’ It’s not 1967 borders in the abstract. It’s not an edict. It’s a recommendation of a structure for negotiations.”
Foxman said that the broader characterization of the speech as anti-Israel by some on the right is also off base, citing its insistence on Israel’s right to self-defense, its opposition to the Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, and other matters.
“The speech indicated to me that this administration has come a long way in better understanding and appreciating the difficulties facing both parties, but especially Israel in trying to make peace with the Palestinians,” Foxman said.