Biden admits to ‘overwhelming frustration’ with Israeli gov’t
Source: Times of Israel
At J Street gala, vice president slams Israeli ‘land seizures, legalization of outposts’; reiterates commitment to its security
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged “overwhelming frustration” with Israel’s government on Monday and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has led the country in the wrong direction, in an unusually sharp rebuke of America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
There is no will for peace among Palestinian and Israeli political leadership, Biden bemoaned during J Street’s annual gala Monday evening. Painting a dim picture of a conflict that is becoming increasingly intractable, the vice president stressed that the United States would maintain its security support for Israel through an extensive defense aid package delineated in a renewed Memorandum of Understanding.
“I firmly believe that the actions that Israel’s government has taken over the past the past several years — the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures — they’re moving us and more importantly they’re moving Israel in the wrong direction,” Biden said.
He said those policies were moving Israel toward a “one-state reality” — meaning a single state for Palestinians and Israelis in which eventually, Israeli Jews will no longer be the majority.
Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-admits-overwhelming-frustration-with-israeli-govt/
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