Obama chief of staff: Bibi remarks ‘troubling’

The Obama administration cannot shrug off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state while he was campaigning for reelection, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Monday.

“We cannot simply pretend that these comments were never made or that they don’t raise questions about the prime minister’s commitment to achieving peace through direct negotiations,” McDonough said to a standing ovation at a conference held by J Street, a liberal, pro-Israel group that is critical of Netanyahu.

McDonough was clear that the administration stands behind a two-state solution.

“We continue to believe that the best way to safeguard Israel’s long-term security is to bring about a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

{mosads}“That’s why the prime minister’s comments on the eve of the election in which he first intimated and then made very clear in response to a follow up question that a Palestinian state will not be established while he is prime minister were so very troubling,” he said.

The White House is keeping the pressure on Netanyahu as it weighs whether to change the United States’ longstanding policy of providing unconditional support for Israel at the United Nations. 

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has walked back his comments since winning reelection, telling MSNBC last week that he backs a “sustainable, peaceful two-state solution” under the right circumstances.

Those comments have done little to pacify the White House.

President Obama has suggested that Netanyahu’s comments since reelection are not enough to prove that he backs the creation of a Palestinian state. 

“We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership,” Obama said during an interview with The Huffington Post published Saturday.

McDonough’s appearance at the conference was confirmed Wednesday, according to J Street Communications Director Jessica Rosenblum, one day after Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party triumphed in Israel’s parliamentary elections. J Street had extended an invitation to the administration months earlier, she said.

Founded in 2008, J Street has positioned itself as a liberal alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel group that has been at odds with Obama over Iran’s nuclear program. 

The administration has sent representatives to every J Street conference since taking office in 2009. Officials appearing have included Vice President Biden and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

A few weeks earlier, the administration sent national security adviser Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power to the conference held by AIPAC. 

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said there was no “message that is trying to be sent” by dispatching a higher-ranking official to the J Street conference.