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NATION/WORLD BRIEFS: Obama’s Peace Process, Israelis Take Water, Netanyahu Backtracks

President Barack Obama said the United States wants to see concrete measures from Israel and the Palestinians.\n\n“What we want to do is step back from the abyss,” Obama told reporters at a news conference Tuesday with Jordanian King Abdullah II, who is visiting Washington. “As hard as it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists.”
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April 22, 2009

Obama Wants Concrete Steps from Israel, Palestinians

President Barack Obama said the United States wants to see concrete measures from Israel and the Palestinians.

“What we want to do is step back from the abyss,” Obama told reporters at a news conference Tuesday with Jordanian King Abdullah II, who is visiting Washington. “As hard as it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists.”

The president said the sides would have to make “hard choices” and take “concrete steps.”

“My hope would be that over the next several months that you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides,” he said. “The parties in the region probably have a pretty good recognition of what intermediate steps can be taken to encourage confidence-building measures.”

Obama said he would meet the new Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the United States, although he did not say when. He suggested that such a meeting was delayed in part because of the newness of Netanyahu’s coalition.

“It was a very complicated process for” the Israeli government “to put a coalition together, they are going to have to formulate and solidify a position,” he said before adding immediately, “We can’t talk forever.”

Obama also addressed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech Monday in Geneva describing Israel as a “racist” state, calling it “appalling” and “harmful.” The president said, however, that his outreach to Iran was on track.

“We’re under no illusions,” he said. “Iran is a very complicated country with a lot of different power centers. The Supreme Leader Khameini is the person who exercises the most control over the policies of the Islamic Republic.”

Obama said he would “continue to pursue the possibility of improved relations and a resolution of some of the issues,” specifically citing nuclear issues.


Report: Israelis Take Water From Palestinians

Israelis have access to four times as much water as the average Palestinian, and the water the Palestinians have is mismanaged, according to a World Bank report.

The report, issued Monday, recommends a change in the current water-distribution arrangement, which was arrived at as part of the Oslo II accords.

It also charged that Israel is taking 50 percent more water from the three aquifers it shares with the Palestinians than it was authorized under the arrangement.

The unequal division of water and the P.A.’s lack of resources have affected the area’s daily supply of water as well as the development of water resources, water uses and wastewater management, according to the report.

Sharing water is likely to become more difficult as the already dire regional water crisis worsens.


Netanyahu Backtracks on Jewish State Recognition

Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not a pre-condition for holding peace negotiations.

A statement issued Monday from the Prime Minister’s Office said that without recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu believes “it will not be possible to advance the diplomatic process and reach a peace settlement. However, the prime minister has never set this as a pre-condition for the opening of negotiations and dialogue with the Palestinians.”

Comments by an unnamed senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office led to reports last week in Israeli media and around the world that Netanyahu would require Palestinian officials to recognize Israel as a Jewish state before he would participate in peace talks.


Olmert’s Cancer Worsening, Tests Show

Ehud Olmert’s prostate cancer is worsening, tests have shown.

Medical tests conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York in the past few days indicate that the tumor “requires immediate treatment,” according to a statement released Sunday by the former prime minister’s media adviser.

Olmert will decide in the coming days whether to opt for surgery or radiation therapy, and whether to be treated in Israel or in New York, according to reports.

Olmert went public with his cancer in October 2007. A hearing in one of the corruption affairs against Olmert was postponed recently until next month for the trip to New York for medical tests.


Skokie Holocaust Museum Opens

Thousands of people marked the opening of a Holocaust museum in Skokie, Ill.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Sunday at the ceremony that it was important to have a museum in the country’s Midwest.

“We don’t want the only people remembering and learning to be in Washington, New York and Los Angeles,” he said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The $45 million Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center features 2,000 recorded survivor testimonies, mostly from Chicago-area survivors, displays a Nazi rail car used to transport Jews to concentration camps and includes an exhibit for children and a reflection room.

Several area survivors will work as museum docents and tell their own stories, The New York Times reported.

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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