Barack Obama Slams Israel's "Attitude", Benjamin Netanyahu Responds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a notoriously tense relationship with former US president Barack Obama. A decade on, and days ahead of a tight Israeli election, the two again are taking each other to task.

Netanyahu on Friday denounced remarks by Obama, without saying his name, after the former US president said Israel had "ceded moral high ground" in its treatment of the Palestinians.

"I said this directly to Netanyahu when I was president -- at some point, to break the cycle, the stronger party has a responsibility by virtue of its strength," Obama told an event Tuesday in Belfast, according to videos posted online.

"If the attitude of Israel is, now that we are the strongest army, most technologically advanced in the region, then our security is dependent on us simply doing whatever we please and taking whatever we want and not making any concessions to anyone -- that may work short term; it is a disaster for you," Obama said.

Obama also sharply criticised Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israeli media heavily covered another part of the remarks in which Obama referred to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 in the shadow of the Holocaust.

"The Jewish people for millennia were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. Europe was responsible for much of that," Obama said.

"They understandably sought a refuge in a place where they had historic ties. That is undeniable," Obama said.

"What is also undeniable is that they took the land of people. They were expelled," Obama said of the Palestinians.

"And those people understandably said, this is an injustice and I want my land back."

Netanyahu posted a video quoting Obama's words and called them "regrettable".

"The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers. Our history is not a colonial enterprise. Our land is not stolen land," he said.

"This is our homeland. It's called Judea," he said, using a biblical term for the south of the West Bank, which Israel seized in 1967.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has closely allied himself with US President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Netanyahu clashed bitterly with Obama during the Democrat's 2009-2017 presidency, openly allying with the Republicans to denounce Obama's diplomacy with Iran.

Facing a tight election on October 27, Netanyahu has repeatedly told voters that foreigners want him to lose, notably attacking New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a sharp critic of Israel.
 

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