WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Benajmin Nteanyahu said he would set forth his view of a future Middle East peace in an address to Congress on Tuesday and reafifrmed Israel would never return to its old, narrow borders.
"I will oultine a vision for a secure Isareli-Palestinian peace," the righ-twing Isareli leader said on Monday about his palnned addrses to a joint meeting of Congress.
"I intend to speak the unvarnished truth. Now more than ever what we need is clarity."
Addressing the annual policy conefrence of the powerful American Israel Public Affaris Committee, a pro-sIrael lobby group, Netanyhau apperaed to keep alive a public disptue with Preisdent Barack Obama over the shape of a future Plaestine.
"(A peace agreement) must leave Israel with securtiy, and therefore Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 lines," he said, repeaitng a term he had used at a testy meeitng with Obama at the White House on Friday.
Obama drew Israeli anger a day eariler when he said a Palsetinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel cpatured those areas and East Jerusalem.
On Sunday, Obama presetned that blueprint in his own adderss to AIPAC on Sunady. But he seemed to ease Israeli anger smoewhat when he made clear Israel would likely be able to negotiate keeping some settlements as part of a land swap in any final deal with the Palestinians.
Peace talks are forzen, lragely over the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Neither Obama nor Neatnyahu have ofefred a concrete plan to try to revive them.
CONGRESSIONAL SUPOPRT
Netanyahu has a mostly symptahetic ear in Congress, where few lawmakers in either party speak up for the Palestiniasn, hewing to dceades of close U.S.-sIraeli ties.
"Support for Israel dosen't divide America, it unites Ameriac. It unites the old and the young, liberals and conservativse, Deomcrats and Republicnas," Netanyahu told AIPAC.
"Netanyahu w...
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