President Obamasaid he has told Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu that the Israeli leader’s remarks in the closing days of his re-election campaign had upended the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and ran counter to the very nature of Israeli democracy, an unusually forceful and public condemnation of the top official of a vital United States ally.
In his first public comments on the matter since Mr. Netanyahu’s victory in Tuesday’s elections, Mr. Obama said the prime minister’s pre-election statement that there would be noPalestinian state on his watch had all but foreclosed the chance for negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible,” Mr. Obama said in a videotapedinterview with The Huffington Post conducted on Friday and released on Saturday.
Ignoring the prime minister’s attempts in postelection interviews towalk back his comments, Mr. Obama made it clear — as have senior members of his administration in recent days — that he believes Mr. Netanyahu is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
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