On the recordMay 26, 2011
Mr. President, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit with one of my true heroes, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was here and graced us with his presence this week. Last March, I was in Jerusalem, had some quality time with him, and we kind of relived the experiences we have had in the past when he was Prime Minister before. That was back in the middle 1990s. I had a chance to talk to him. As I recall, his concern at that time--what he said at that time--two major concerns. One is, what is happening in Iran, and then, of course, making sure that the land in Israel right now will stay there. Recently, I had a chance to visit with him again. I was quite surprised when he came here and he was met with this suggestion that things are going to change and that maybe we would encourage Israel to go back to their 1967 borders. I can assure you that we will do everything we can to keep that from happening. I want to make sure we get the message out there, that this may be President Obama talking, it is not the majority of people in America, as was witnessed by the 30 standing ovations that Prime Minister Netanyahu got in his joint speech. It sounded familiar when we are talking about this, about the land. I remembered that it was 10 years ago--10 years ago right now, 2001--that I made a speech, and it jogged my memory when I heard the President talking about going back to the 1967 borders. So I dug up that speech. I found it, and I found that it is so appropriate today.…





