BICOM

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud political party last night welcomed US President Barack Obama’s address to AIPAC on Sunday. Likud Knesset member Carmel Shama-Hacohen said, ‘President Obama gave an explicit, emphatic ‘no’ to the ’67 lines and Hamas [while expressing] boundless support for the State of Israel as a Jewish and a democratic state whose security is ensured.’

Meanwhile, opposition politicians stressed the importance of working with Obama to advance the peace process. Leader of the opposition and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni said, ‘The principle of Israel’s security and the need to arrive at a two-state solution, one of which is the State of Israel, is first of all an Israeli interest. Therefore, we need to be going in this direction in our partnership with the US.’ Labour Knesset member Isaac Herzog, one of the candidates to lead the party, said ‘We cannot miss this opportunity. Netanyahu must give a courageous, affirmative answer and adopt Obama’s proposal.’