Netanyahu: "I am partner to US president's wish to promote peace", determined to work to find new ways to reignite peace negotiations."
By REUTERS, HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, HERB KEINOWASHINGTON - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged on Sunday to work alongside US President Barack Obama for a way to renew frozen peace talks with the Palestinians."I am a partner to President Obama's wish to promote peace and I appreciate his efforts in the past and present to achieve this goal," Netanyahu said in a statement issued in response to Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affair's Committee's annual conference. "I am determined to work with President Obama to find ways to renew peace talks."RELATED:Comment: Obama’s failure to internalize Palestinian intolerance PM: Disagreement with Obama blown out of proportionObama’s sour notes in Israel are music to EuropeansObama told AIPAC on Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians will negotiate a border that is different than the one which existed on June, 4 1967.The plan "allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last forty-four years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides," Obama explained.Following a White House meeting on Friday, Obama and Netanyahu acknowledged the differences that divide them even as they emphasized areas of agreement on the peace process, Iran and democratic changes in the Middle East.Netanyahu flatly rejected any return to the 1967 lines, the basis – along with agreed land swaps – for a deal with the Palestinians as laid out in a speech by Obama Thursday.Obama, in his Thursday address on the changes sweeping the Middle East, called for a demilitarized Palestinian state along the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps.