I recall having read an article or watched a video that’s very relevant to this and posted it previously, so I’ll have a look to see if I can find it.
To be cynical none of this rhetoric really surprises me at all. It’s very similar to the approach made by Clinton in his peace talks regarding the Israel/Palestine situation, and while compared to Bush the fact Obama references the 1967 borders is quite a significant step, it’s also a very ineffective one.
The way the state of Israel functions is to support and provide security for, without significant repercussions, the vast majority of illegal settlements. They cut into the West Bank under the 1967 agreement, criss-cross it with road networks and misdirect water sources for their own needs. In addition to this the way the security wall functions is to cut into the West Bank and claim open land, while leaving Palestinian villages isolated and disconnected but not incorporated into Israel. The purpose is to create as much open land for Israel without taking on an arabic population that would threaten this concept of a “Jewish state”.
A two state solution has simply been made implausible. There’s no possible way you can convince the illegal settlers to leave their fortified villages because to their minds it’s their land and it’s an offence for arabic people to inhabit the area. Netanyahu knows this and has played to this: Zionist civilians take it upon themselves to build settlements, the state of Israel slaps them on the wrist and says they’ve been very naughty, and then constructs the infrastructure to defend the stolen land.
So Obama is falling back on the normalised “liberal” conversation approach to the situation in talking about the 1967 borders, despite the fact that Israel has made this impossible to create. What’s more is the concept of a “Jewish state” is inherently racist – the analogous idea are the people running around in the UK declaring we’re on the verge of introducing Sharia Law and we need to keep Britain for the British. As I see it the most suitable format of state that could be created would be a single, possibly federal, state with a proportionally elected government. These new middle east peace talks will just lead to the standard song and dance which essentially gains nothing, while Israel carries on just as it ever did.
Philosophy of Praxis 