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World Jewish News
Jordan's King Abdullah: Israel must choose integration or isolation
25.04.2009
Jordan's King Abdullah on Friday said that Israel must choose between integrating into the region or remaining isolated, and warned that delaying a two-state solution would be disastrous for Israelis and Palestinians.
The Jewish state can "integrate into the region...or to remain fortress Israel, isolated, holding itself and the entire region hostage to continued confrontation," Abdullah said during his visit to Washington.
Abdullah urged American leaders to back a two-state solution as outlined in the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers Israel normalized ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized
in the 1967 war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.
"U.S. commitment to Palestinian statehood must be unambiguous in deeds as well as words. This is central to America's standing," Abdullah said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
"Events are already testing U.S. credibility. These include the Israeli voice for turning back the clock on negotiations," he added.
Abdullah, who met U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this week, said high-level U.S. involvement was needed in the talks, stalled since Israel's incursion into Gaza last December in response to rocket attacks on Israel.
"When there is a deadlock, let the U.S. break the impasse by proposing its own creative solutions," he said.
"Israel must know that attempting to delay this solution will be disastrous for its own future as well as for the future of the Palestinians," the king added.
On Monday, after meeting Abdullah, Obama urged Israel to accept the goal of a Palestinian state and invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June. Netanyahu is expected in Washington next month.
The king urged the United States to pressure Israel to stop "illegal settlement building" and moves to "force out" Jerusalem's Arab, Muslim and Christian population.
Источник: Haaretz
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