Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
The US should support the Palestinian reconciliation process and pave the way for recognition of a Palestinian state if it wants peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Davutoglu said on Friday in response to US President Barack Obama's speech on Thursday.
"There is a reference to the 1967 borders in Obama's speech. This is an important window of opportunity. They should not refrain from giving support to Palestinian reconciliation due to Israel's unnecessary reservations," the Turkish daily Hurriyet quoted him as saying on Friday.
"A Palestinian state should be founded without delay," he said.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Obama's call for a withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories to the 1967 borders.
Davutoglu also referred to a recent statement by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon, who urged Ankara to convince a Turkish human-rights organization not to dispatch another aid convoy to Gaza in June.
"What is unnecessary in this case is not the aid flotilla, but Israel's blockade on Gaza," Davutoglu said, adding that rather than trying to restrain an aid convoy, Washington should urge Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
You can't say that to a bunch of Philistines! Definition of a Philistine: "A member of the non-Semetic people who inhabited (or inhabit now?) ancient Palestine." There must be a lot of Israelis who can be defined under this term, as they are pretty much non-semetic.
Hmmm.... There's something to be said about getting the Philistines out of Palestine.