Matt Salmon Denounces President Obama's Call for Israel to Return to Its Indefensible 1967 Borders

Salmon Denounces President Obama’s Call for Israel to Return to Its Indefensible 1967 Borders

"As an ally it is wrong for us to advocate a policy that will jeopardize Israel’s security"


EAST VALLEY – Former Congressman Matt Salmon denounced President Obama’s proposal that Israel return to borders its famous former Foreign Minister Abba Eben, called "Israel’s Auschwitz line". Salmon says, "Until now, no US President has advocated Israel return to the 1967 borders – borders that the Prime Minister of Israel reiterated yesterday would put Israel’s security at risk. The President cannot say he will do nothing to undermine Israel’s security and then advocate a policy that the Prime Minister of Israel says would undermine Israel’s security."


Thursday, President Obama outlined a Palestinian state based on Israel’s borders before the 1967 Six Day War, requiring Israel to give up control over all of East Jerusalem including the holiest sites of the Jewish people – the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The President made clear in his speech that were Israel to try to retain these historical Jewish sites, Israel would have to give up land that has existed from Israel’s creation in 1949. Such a position has never before been advocated by a sitting U.S. President.

Salmon said, "It’s astonishing that the President is suggesting something that would break the written commitment given to Israel in 2004 by President Bush that specifically indicated that Israel could keep at least some of the territory that Israel won in the defensive 1967 war, territory that Israel vitally needs for its security. "This move not only puts Israel’s security at risk, it hurts U.S. interests as well."

Salmon continues, "President Obama is also doing it at a time when the Palestinian Authority has formed a union with the Bin Laden supporting Hamas. Such a policy thus destroys the momentum achieved by putting the terrorists on the defensive after the killing of Bin Laden. Telling a U.S. ally, Israel, to give more land to a Bin Laden supporting entity is just flat out wrong."

Salmon has been a long-time, strong supporter of a safe and secure Israel. When he was in Congress in 1999, at the time First Lady Hillary Clinton called for the establishment of a Palestinian State. Salmon then pushed a bill through the House that Congress would never recognize a Palestinian state unless our ally Israel agreed to it first.

Salmon concluded, "The day after the bill passed, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Netanyahu personally phoned me and told me I was a statesman and a hero for Israel."


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