Speaking at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this morning, President Obama urged Israel and Palestine to reach a diplomatic agreement, comparing the conflict between the two states to “arguments” between the U.S. and Canada.
“So I think it’s important for us to work through this process, even if there are irritants on both sides,” Obama said. “The Israelis have concerns about rockets flying into their cities last night. And it would be easy for them to say, you see, this is why we can’t have peace because we can’t afford to have our kids in beds sleeping and suddenly a rocket comes through the roof. But my argument is even though both sides may have areas of strong disagreement, may be engaging in activities that the other side considers to be a breach of good faith, we have to push through those things to try to get to an agreement — because if we get an agreement then it will be very clear what the nature of that agreement is: There will be a sovereign Palestinian state, a sovereign Jewish State of Israel.”
“And those two states I think will be able to deal with each other the same way all states do. I mean, the United States and Canada has arguments once in a while, but they’re not the nature of arguments that can’t be solved diplomatically.”
