Mr. Netanyahu Stands Tall

By JAY SOLOMON And CAROL E. LEE, Wall Street Journal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a rare public rebuke of President Barack Obama at the White House, declaring that Israel would never accept the terms of his proposal to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

Mr. Netanyahu appeared to lecture Mr. Obama following their nearly two-hour meeting Friday—exposing tensions between leaders over Mideast policy that are usually kept out of the public eye.

That followed some unsuccessful behind-the-scenes wrangling by Israeli officials to convince Mr. Obama to abandon plans to urge, in a major speech Thursday, that peace negotiations resume based on Israel’s borders before it gained new territory in the 1967 Six Day War.

Before cameras and reporters in the Oval Office Friday afternoon, Mr. Netanyahu turned to face the president while telling him Israel “cannot go back to the 1967 lines” that are “indefensible.”

The discord was likely to play out further at the annual gathering of Washington’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Mr. Obama was scheduled to speak on Sunday and Mr. Netanyahu the following day.

Mr. Netanyahu will also speak before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, providing him a second opportunity to rally support against Mr. Obama’s approach.

“Obviously there are some differences between us in the precise formulations and language, and that’s going to happen between friends,” Mr. Obama told reporters as he sat next to Mr. Netanyahu, before the Israeli premier spoke.

But, he said, “I think that it is possible for us to shape a deal that allows Israel to secure itself, not to be vulnerable, but also allows it to resolve what has obviously been a wrenching issue for both peoples for decades now.”

Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu met Friday morning at the White House following 24 hours of hectic diplomacy between the U.S. and Israel.

Israeli officials said Mr. Netanyahu left the meeting feeling better about the state of Israeli relations with its closest ally. “He came in worried and left encouraged,” said a senior Israeli official briefed on the meeting.

Still, Mr. Netanyahu directly challenged Mr. Obama’s vision for a two-state solution in the press availability after the meeting, a rare break from the usual diplomatic niceties at such staged events.

After Mr. Obama’s introductory comments, the Israeli leader leaned toward the president and directly said his call for negotiations based on pre-1967 lines was a non-starter.

“Remember that, before 1967, Israel was all of nine miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington Beltway, and these were not the boundaries of peace; they were the boundaries of repeated wars, because the attack on Israel was so attractive,” Mr. Netanyahu said, staring at Mr. Obama.

“So we can’t go back to those indefensible lines, and we’re going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan [Valley],” he added.

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VIDEO: The press conference