Paris under siege: Israel stands ‘shoulder to shoulder’ in anti-terror fight

The two-state solution is dead.

He made his first statement during the photo op at the start of his meeting with US President Barack Obama.

Pro-Palestinian Turks gather on the fourth anniversary of the Israeli raid on Mavi Marmara ship, the lead boat of a flotilla headed to the besieged Gaza Strip which was stormed by Israeli forces in a predawn confrontation in the Mediterranean on May 31, 2010, in Istanbul, Turkey, May 30, 2014. That mistake will not be repeated … “I didn’t speak [last night in the United States] about a unilateral withdrawal, but rather about one-sided steps that could strengthen Israel’s security and national interests against terrorism”, he wrote.

“We are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French are not to blame for the terrorism directed against them”, Netanyahu said. “And the fact that Israelis choose to live in Judea and Samaria is not justification for terrorism or murder”.

Netanyahu’s appearance at the CAP provoked anger among many liberals, partly because it ended the comfortable divide between pro-Israeli liberals and hawkish Zionists. Our leaders in Washington have shamefully abased themselves to Israeli demands for more than seven decades.

Obama and Netanyau agreed there would be recurring discussions on a long-term memorandum of understanding on the military assistance that the US would provide to the Jewish state. In order for this to happen, both Obama and Netanyahu must get beyond the acrimony that has characterised their relationship thus far.

The primary sources of these tensions revolve around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iran nuclear deal. Unable to entrust his right-wing coalition partners with sensitive diplomatic missions, Mr. Netanyahu has turned to Yair Lapid, a centrist lawmaker, to fly to London to discuss a controversial UNESCO vote and to Berlin to lobby the German parliament against European labelling of settlement products.

Israel has faced a wave of almost daily Palestinian terrorist attacks on civilians and security personnel, including stabbings, car-ramming attacks and shootings. As Netanyahu left the White House, he went directly to the anti-Obama conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to receive an award, followed by two stops at the Jewish Federation and the pro-Democrat “liberal” Centre for American Progress (CAP). His views tend to be historically/biblically based, which emphasizes that they are genuine and not just produced for political consumption. Fifty-two percent of respondents said US-Israeli relations were getting worse, and only 5% said they were getting better. It therefore seems quite puzzling that the story omits mention of Goldberg’s coverage, detailed interviews with both President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, and, of course, the infamous chickens**t epithet.

Meanwhile, back in Israel, Netanyahu, as well as senior ministers from the Likud and to its right, keep burying their heads in the sand. Rather, it educated them.