Top Obama aide: US can't ignore Netanyahu's comments
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President Barack Obama's chief of staff rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to distance himself from his comments rejecting Palestinian statehood, telling an Israel advocacy group Monday that the US can't just overlook what Netanyahu said on the eve of his re-election.
In a speech to J Street, an Israel advocacy group that is sharply critical of Netanyahu, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough also warned Israel against annexing the West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish their future state. He said Netanyahu's prediction that a Palestinian state wouldn't come about on his watch were "so very troubling" and called into question Netanyahu's broader commitment to the two-state solution the US and Israel have officially supported for years. "We cannot simply pretend that these comments were never made," McDonough said.
