Former special counsel to President Clinton tells Shalom TV that new administration's policy toward Israel is consistent with previous presidents
January 22, 2009 (Fort Lee, NJ) -- Reacting to predictions that President Barack Obama's desire to broker peace in the Middle East might pressure Israel into abandoning West Bank settlements and making other concessions to the Palestinians that undermine the security of the Jewish state, Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, tells Shalom TV that the suggestion has no factual basis.
"Whoever says that has no knowledge, no facts, and they're engaging in speculation," charges Mr. Davis. "All I talk about are facts. What Barack Obama has said is that he not only supports Israel and Israel's right to exist, [but also] like President Clinton and President Bush, he supports a two-state solution. Those are facts.
(These 2 ideas are non-convergent no matter what!- Avi)
"We have a president of the United States, consistent with our prior presidents, who believes in Israel's right to exist, [who] believes in Israel as a democratic friend of the United States. But since Bill Clinton we finally have Israel changing its own political perspective--we now have the acceptance of a two-state solution."
Appearing on Shalom TV's "Jewish World News" hosted by Mark S. Golub, Mr. Davis, now a spokesperson with The Israel Project, a international nonprofit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel, outlines his idea for peace that involves a secession from land but stresses that this framework was proposed by Israel years ago.
"Ehud Barak was willing to accept at Camp David in the closing days of the Clinton administration that they [the Palestinians] get the West Bank, they get part of Jerusalem, [and] the holy places are internationalized," he explains. "In a million years I could never have imagined any Israeli prime minister offering that to any Palestinian group, much less a solution to the peace process.
"For reasons that I will never understand, that deal was not struck. [But,] at the end of the day, that deal is going to need to be struck because we need a peaceful two-state solution in the Middle East. But we can't have one with Hamas existing. They have to be isolated by the civilized world as what they are--murdering thugs who believe in death and not life."
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