Barack Obama’s White House iftar speech in support of Israel

20th July 2014

This is US President Barack Obama’s full speech at the annual White House iftar event where he stated that “Israel has the right to defend itself”.

Many Muslim organisations and leaders that attended last week’s event said they were appalled at the president’s actions.

An exert of the speech:

“Our goal has been and continues to be peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. And I will say very clearly, no country can accept rocket fired indiscriminately at citizens. And so, we’ve been very clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against what I consider to be inexcusable attacks from Hamas. At the same time, on top of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that we’ve worked long and hard to alleviate, the death and injury of Palestinian civilians is a tragedy, which is why we’ve emphasized the need to protect civilians, regardless of who they are or where they live.

“I believe further escalation benefits no one, least of all the Israeli and the Palestinian people. So we’re going to continue doing everything we can to facilitate a return to the 2012 cease-fire. We are encouraged that Egypt has made a proposal to accomplish this goal, which we hope can restore the calm that we’ve been seeking. More broadly, however, the situation in Gaza reminds us again that the status quo is unsustainable and that the only path to true security is a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, where differences are resolved peacefully and in ways that respect the dignity of all people.”