The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would never admit to this, but the Washington Jewish Week’s Adam Kredo reports the group’s press release decrying Palestinian diplomatic warfare may have been a veiled attack on President Obama.
Here’s the crucial piece of text from the AIPAC press release:
“The Palestinians have now stepped up their preconditions by demanding that Israel publicly commit that a Palestinian state will be based on the pre-June 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps.”
Unmentioned, but implied, is that the Palestinians stepped up their preconditions after Obama endorsed borders based on the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps during his Middle East speech in May. Both Democratic and Republican operatives told Kredo AIPAC’s press release was an implicit attack on the president’s position.
The press release sounds like a warning shot from AIPAC to the Obama administration. It’s noteworthy it comes on the heels of Eli Lake’s Washington Times article revealing the White House may be pressuring Israel to accept its position on the 1967 lines. That position means negotiations would have to begin at the 1967 lines — with the “mutually agreed land swaps” being decided on during the negotiation process. And if the two sides can’t agree? Then it’s back to the 1967 lines.
The administration is trying to obscure this position. But as AIPAC’s press release illustrates, the Palestinian governments realize exactly what Obama means and why this would be a disaster for Israel.
