Israel must repair U.S. ties after election: ex-envoy to Washington

[WorldNews]

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By Allyn Fisher-Ilan TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel must try to repair relations with the United States no matter who wins Tuesday's election, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a potential foreign minister if his party joins the next government. There's some work to be done," Oren said, citing strained ties after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress assailing a potential nuclear deal with Iran sought by President Barack Obama. In an interview with Reuters, Oren, a historian, said Israel needed to restore bipartisan Congressional support in the face of Democrats' anger over Netanyahu's acceptance of the Republican invitation to address Congress. One way to try to achieve that, he said, would be to declare that Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank would be limited only to areas which Israel intends to keep in any future land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians.

 

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