WASHINGTON (Reuters) – isrælske prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly told President Barack Obama Friday his vision for how to achieve Middle East peace was unrealistic, exposing a deep rift could doom any U.S. bid to revive peace talks.
In an unusually strong rebuke to Isræls closest allies insisted Netanyahu Israel would never pull back to the 1967 borders--which would mean major concessions occupied land--that Obama had said should serve as a basis for negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian State.
"Peace based on illusions will down to the end of the Cretaceous rocks of the Middle East reality," said a round of Netanyahu as Obama listened carefully beside him in the Oval Office after they met for talks.
Netanyahu insisted that Israel was willing to make compromises for peace, but made clear he had major differences with Washington over how to move long-stand in the peace process.
Netanyahu's opposition raises the question of how difficult Obama will press for concessions he is unlikely to get, and whether the vision U.S. leader established on Thursday to resolve the conflict in decades old will ever get off the ground.
Despite assurances of friendship, both leaders appeared this week's events also to herald tense months ahead for U.S.-isrælske relations, even as the Arab world must pass through the Centre of the political tumult and Palestinians prepare a unilateral bid this fall's General Assembly to seek recognition for the State.
For journalists after the meeting, Obama said he reiterated to Netanyahu peace "principles" he offered on Thursday in a policy speech on the Middle East upheaval.
Goal, he said, "must be a secure isrælske State, a Jewish State living side by side in peace and security with a coherent, efficient and effective Palestinian State.
Obama on Thursday embraced a long-sought goal of the Palestinians: the State they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along the lines that existed before the 1967 war, Israel captured these areas and East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu, who heads the right-leaning Coalition, reacted with what amounted to a history lecture on vulnerability to attack Israel faced with the old borders. "We cannot go back to these irresponsible lines," he said.
Picking a fight with Israel could be politically risky for Obama at home as he seeks re-election in 2012.
CRISIS IN THE RELATIONSHIP
Brewing crisis in U.S.-isrælske relationships dimmed even further prospects for resuming peace talks that collapsed late last year when the Palestinians walked away in a dispute over the isrælske settlements building in the West Bank.
Obama and Netanyahu, meanwhile, appears to have reached a stalemate after two and a half years of rocky relations. Obama White House was enraged when Netanyahu refused a U.S. demand to stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Some isrælerne have never felt very comfortable with Obama, unnerved by his early attempts to reach out to Iran and his support for the popular Arab revolutions which has alarmed Israel.
In a pointed comment clearly aimed at Obama new approach to the long-standing conflict, Netanyahu said: "the only peace that will endure is, is based on the reality on the Kindle facts".
Netanyahu, isrælske officials said, was determined to push back hard because the reference to the 1967 borders was a red flag that will attract more international pressure on Israel for concessions. A senior isrælske official said Netanyahu felt he had to speak bluntly that he would be "heard around the world."
"There is a feeling of Washington does not understand the reality does not understand what we are facing," official on board the aircraft under Netanyahu to Washington, told journalists.
Nevertheless, Obama first statement of his position on the contested issue of boundaries helps ease doubts in the Arab world about his obligation to act as an impartial broker and increase its outreach to the region. Another unsuccessful peace efforts, however, could fuel further frustration.
In line with Netanyahu's position reflected Obama opposition to the Palestinian plan to search's recognition of the State in September, in the absence of renewed peace talks.
The Democratic President is quickly come under fire from Republican critics who accuse him of betraying Israel, the closest U.S. allies in the region. Pushing Netanyahu could offend the U.S. supporters of Israel, as Obama seeks re-election.
Obama can get a chilly reception in a speech to an influential quietly lobbying group on Sunday. Netanyahu is expected to be celebrated when he deals with the same audience on Monday and then Congress Tuesday.
POINTERS TO COMPROMISE
Obama, in his speech on Thursday, laid down its clearest markers yet on the compromises he believes that Israel and the Palestinians must do in order to resolve a conflict that has long been seen as a source of Middle East tensions.
But he is not a formal U.S. peace plan or timetable for an agreement he once promised to clinch in September.
In Thursday's speech, Obama said: "we believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps" soil. While this has long been the private view in Washington, Obama went further than U.S. officials have in recent times.
Agreed swaps would allow Israel to keep the settlements in the West Bank in exchange for giving the Palestinians other than agricultural land.
Go in the negotiations, Netanyahu said, he wanted to hear Obama reaffirms commitments to Israel in 2004 by then-President George w. Bush suggests that it can keep some large settlement blocks as a part of any peace Pact.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday that Obama had said something that "contrary to these letters."
Obama on Thursday also delivered a message to the Palestinians, they should answer "some very difficult questions" about a lot of reconciliation with Hamas, Islamic groups to run Gaza and the United States, regard as terrorist groups.
(Additional reporting by Alister Bull, Patricia Zengerle, Jeff Mason, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Ori Lewis and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Paul Simao)
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