Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has hopped on the Republican bandwagon against President Obama’s call for a return to negotiations for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict — and has now announced that he will introduce a Senate resolution opposing the president’s proposals.
Hatch released a statement, entitled “Hatch Condemns President’s Demand that Israel Revert to Pre-1967 Borders.”
“Israel is the United States’ strongest friend and ally. By calling for a return to the pre-1967 borders, President Obama has directly undermined her,” Hatch declared. “Rather than stand by Israel against consistent unprovoked aggression by longtime supporters of terrorism, President Obama is rewarding those who threaten Israel’s very right to exist. This is not only ridiculous, but dangerous. There is strong disapproval in Congress for the President’s new posture towards Israel, and I will introduce a resolution next week affirming Israel’s right to maintain its territorial integrity.”
In fact, Obama did not call for a direct return to the 1967 borders for Israel, as Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have represented. Instead, he reiterated the longstanding conventional wisdom of the international diplomatic community, and indeed the position of previous U.S. administrations, that those lines should be the initial basis for talks, and with additional land swaps to be agreed upon in further adjusting those lines.
