America
US blasts Israeli PM over campaign comments after election win
Washington, March 19
The White House has
slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his campaign
comments about Arab-Israeli voters after his win in parliamentary
elections.
The US is "deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks
to marginalize Arab-Israeli citizens," White House Press Secretary Josh
Earnest told reporters on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
"It
undermines the values and democratic ideals that have been important to
our democracy and an important part of what binds the US and Israel
together."
On a video posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday,
Netanyahu told his supporters that big masses of Arab voters are going
out to vote.
The only way to "save the right-wing rule" is going
to the poll stations and narrowing the gap between his Likud party and
the Zionist Union, he said.
Shelly Yachimovich, a lawmaker from the Zionist Union, denounced Netanyahu's statements as "racist."
On Wednesday, Earnest also reaffirmed the US endorsement of the two-state solution in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It
has long been the policy of the Us and it continues to be the view of
the President that a two-state solution is the best way to address those
tensions and address that instability," Earnest said.
Trailing
in the polls, Netanyahu told an Israeli news website on Monday, "I think
that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate
territory, gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against
Israel."
Asked directly whether no Palestinian state would be created under his leadership, the prime minister answered "Indeed."
The
statement contradicts his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech, in which he expressed
his support to a two-state solution to end the conflict with the
Palestinians.
"In the context of the recent election, Prime
Minister Netanyahu indicated a change in his position," Earnest said.
"And based on those comments, the Us will evaluate our approach to the
situation moving forward."
Israel's ruling right-wing Likud party
won 30 seats in the 120- member parliament and beat opposition leader
Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union, which won only 24 seats.
Earnest
told reporters that the US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned
Netanyahu earlier on Wednesday to congratulate him on winning the
election.
The White House spokesman added that he anticipated President Barack Obama will also call Netanyahu "in the coming days".
At a regular press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that Kerry's call was "brief".
"Given
there is an ongoing government formation process, they did not discuss
substantive issues," she said. "The purpose of the call was to
congratulate him on the election."