Israel Debates No. 8 2 June 2011 Netanyahu vs. Obama – Political Duel on Capitol Hill Be nyamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington and, in particular, his speech before the US Congress at the inv i­tation of the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, had been eagerly anticipated for weeks. Would he deliver a speech that gave new impetus to the peace process with the Palestinians, perhaps even lead to a breakthrough? Prior to his departure to the US, in a speech before the Knesset on May 16th, Netanyahu had set out his positions with regard to the peace process and presented the political roadmap he would outline in Wash­ington. The following five points summarize his basic positions: 1) The recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people; 2) A demilitarized Palestine with Israeli military presence in the Jordan River Valley; 3) No right of return to Israel for Palestinian refugees; 4) No recognition of the 1967 borders and preservation of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank; 5) No division of Jerusalem. After this speech it was plain to every observer that Netanyahu was not going to make substantial concessions in the peace process. The day before Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington, Barack Obama too delivered a foreign policy keynote speech on the ―Arab Spring‖ and the Middle East conflict. With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he adopted a position that sounded different from what any other American president had said before: Peace between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on the 1967 borders, in connection with mutually agreed exchanges of territory. What followed was an exchange of blows that exercised the Israeli public intensely. Even before his departure to the US, Netanyahu had respo nded to Obama’s speech in the strongest terms. He rejected Obama’s proposal as completely unacceptable, since withdrawing to the borders of 1967 would leave Israel indefensible. The following day, having arrived in Washington, Netanyahu reiterated his criticism in a mee­ting with Obama at the White House. Only a few days later, Obama and Netanyahu continued their controversy, this time in front of more than 10,000 delegates of the influential American-Israeli lobby organization AIPAC(American Israel Public Affairs Committee). This political duel culminated in Netanyahu’s speech on Capitol Hill on May 24th. In this speech, he exploited his political experience and put his brilliant rhetorical skills to full use in order to appease Congress 1