White House official: Occupation lasting 50 years must end

Continuing President Barack Obama’s assaults on Binyamin Netanyahu, Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff referred to Netanyahu’s campaign remark that there would be no Palestinian state while he was in office as impossible to ignore and “very troubling." Addressing the annual conference of Democratic Party-linked J Street group, he said that this was not a matter of personal relations between Obama and Netanyahu but differences on substantial policy issues. The US will never stop working for a two-state solution as the centerpiece of a peace accord, he said, adding, ”An occupation that has lasted more than 50 years must end.”

The US media covering McDonough’s speech noted that he did not refer to any steps that the Obama administration proposed to take against Netanyahu and Israel.