Obama Addresses Catholic Reporters

Joshua Frazer — July 6, 2009 – 9:56 am | Israel | Obama Comments (0) Add a comment

President Barack Obama addressed Catholic reporters last week, and touched briefly on the situation in the Middle East.

Obama told the reporters that the administration was having “constructive conversations” with the Israeli government. He also maintained that the Palestinian Authority also needed to meet certain obligations to forward the negotiations.

A portion of the transcript of Obama’s interview with Catholic reporters is below.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.  The Holy Father during his recent trip to the Holy Land called for a just and lasting peace.  Peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, however, have stalled in part because of Israelis’ objections to halt settlement growth of the West Bank.  How does your administration plan to recount those objections and to restart negotiations on the two-state track?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as you know, we have been very clear that we think settlements should stop.  This is not an easy thing for the Israelis.  Settlement activity has been going on for decades.  And Prime Minister Netanyahu, I think, has taken our position seriously, but he’s under his own set of political constraints.  We are having, I think, very constructive conversations with the Israelis, although I’m not in a position to say what the final outcome on those discussions will be.

On the other hand, it’s not just the problem of Israeli settlements. The Palestinians have a set of obligations, some of which the Palestinian Authority have met, some of which they have not been as strong on.  We want to encourage them to clamp down on violence, to end the incitement that you still hear, unfortunately, in many Palestinian communities.

And the surrounding Arab states have to play a role in taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel.  If Israel is going to make some very difficult political decisions around settlements and ultimately around borders that would allow for a Palestinian state, Arab states have to make some difficult political decisions themselves, recognizing Israel’s existence, its legitimacy, that it has security needs like any other state.

And so without dictating a final outcome, what the United States should be doing is holding a mirror to both sides and indicating how their failure to resolve this issue is undermining peace and security for both peoples.  And this is a topic that I’m looking forward to speaking with the Holy Father about, because I think that our position is going to overlap greatly with the position of the government of the Holy See.  And I think we can be effective partners in trying to move the parties in a closer direction.

All right.  Well, thank you very much, everybody.

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