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msnbc.com news services
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/cleanprint/CleanPrintProxy.aspx?unique=1305918876315

WASHINGTON— In a tense Oval Office
meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu sat alongside President Barack
Obama on Friday and declared that Israel
would not withdraw to the 1967 borders to
help make way for an adjacent Palestinian
state.

Obama had called on Israel to be willing to do
just that in a speech the day earlier.

The Israeli leader said he would make some
concessions but Israel would not go back to
the lines from decades earlier because they
are “indefensible.”

Obama listened with a strained look on his
face.

For his part, Obama said there were
differences of formulations and language but
said such disputes are going to happen
“between friends.”

The president never mentioned the 1967
borders in his comments to reporters.

The two men spoke to the press after a
lengthy meeting at the White House. Obama
said in his speech on Thursday that the
United States supports creation of a
Palestinian state, with talks based on the
border lines that existed before the 1967 Six
Day War, in which Israel forces occupied east
Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Obama’s
speech deeply angered Israel.

“We value your efforts to advance the peace
process,” Netanyahu said after the meeting.
“Israel wants peace, I want peace. … We want
a peace that will endure. … For there to be
peace, Palestinians cannot expect Israel to go
back to the 1967 lines.”