WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected talk of a crisis in Israeli-U.S. relations ahead of a speech on Sunday by Barack Obama to a pro-Israel group which could give the president a cool reception.
"The reports of a disagreement have been blown way out of proportion," Netanyahu was quoted as saying on Saturday by a spokesman, as Obama prepared to address the annual assembly in Washington of the pro-Israel lobby organization AIPAC.
"It's true we have some differences of opinion, but these are among friends," the spokesman quoted him as saying.
Netanyahu appeared to be trying to calm any anger toward the president and limit damage from their open disagreement on Friday over the territorial starting line for peace talks leading eventually to an independent Palestinian state.
Obama's proposal that talks start on the basis of Israel's 1967 borders met with howls of protest in Israel. A right-wing group called for an anti-Obama protest at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
But some Israeli media also asked if Netanyahu himself stoked an air of crisis.
Contrary to impressions that he was surprised by Obama's speech, reports on Sunday confirmed he was told over 24 hours ahead of time that Obama would propose a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, and had called Washington to try to get the president to change his mind and his text -- without success.
When Obama went ahead, Netanyahu, who was about to board his flight to Washington, issued a strong statement rejecting the suggestion. Officials seemed taken aback and an aide, asked if Netanyahu had been forewarned, said: "No comment."
"The Americans ambushed us," a source close to the prime minister was quoted as saying in the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom.
STRAINED RELATIONS
In radio interviews on Sunday, however, Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren on Sunday confirmed that Netanyahu was informed in advance. Asked by Israel Army Radio, "Why create a crisis?," Oren said: "We do not feel that there is a crisis. There are differences.."
After their talks at the White House on Friday, Netanyahu bluntly rejected Obama's vision of the boundaries of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He told Obama his endorsement of the Palestinian demand to go back to Israel's 1967 frontiers -- meaning big land concessions -- was unrealistic and would leave Israel "indefensible."
Netanyahu addresses AIPAC on Monday and a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday, with political commentators speculating as to whether he would use those platforms to attack Obama's peace outline, or try to soothe their strained relations.
Obama's speech laid down his clearest markers yet on the compromises he believes Israel and the Palestinians must make to resolve a conflict that has long been seen as source of Middle East tension. But he did not present a formal U.S. peace plan.
For Obama, pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strongest supporters as he seeks re-election in 2012.
Netanyahu's domestic opponents backed Obama's speech.
"An American president that supports the two-state vision is representing Israeli interests and is not anti-Israel," main opposition leader Tzipi Livni was quoted as saying.
"If there is a consensus in Israel, it's that relations with the U.S. are essential to Israel, and a prime minister who harms the relationship with the U.S. over something insubstantial is harming Israel's security and deterrence."
(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis)
(Writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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