chance in jerusalem to get reaction to the prime minister s speech there. matthew, what did you hear? well, palestinian reaction, except for the stuff we have been hearing on cnn the last couple minutes. but clearly, there s not going to be enough in this speech by benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister that s going to make the vast majority of palestinians i ve been speaking to, many of them over the past couple of days, going to make them anymore believing in the idea that there s going to be some kind of negotiated settlement with israel, with this prime minister in power. he talked about the borders of a future palestinian state and a future israeli jewish state, as well. but he didn t appear to make any of the kind of compromises i think that the palestinians would be looking for when it comes to settlement blocks for instance. netanyahu made it clear that
that same concept throughout all the times that i ve negotiated on this issue. we always thought you have to start from some place, and that was the basic starting point. rick: so if, you know, i m a little confused here. i guess because everything i ve been reading and talked about, and i heard the president s words himself yesterday when he was giving that address. he said that the pre-1967, the pre-six-day war borders should be sort of the basis for the borders of a future palestinian state, and yet as you point out this isn t the first time that these parameters have been thrown out there and not the first time that a united states president has talked about this. well, that s right. in a negotiation you ve got to start from something. and what the president said is based on the 67 lines with mutually-agreed swaps with, i might add, secure and recognized borders for both states. that is a open door for discussion between the parties as to where those borders should ultimately be
their position quite known, and i m sure that prime minister netanyahu is doing so with the president right now. we are not going to wind up on the 67 borders, period. full stop. that is what exchange of agreed areas to adjust the borders, to take care of problems like very large settlement cities rick: what about jerusalem and splitting jerusalem? we have just a couple seconds left, ambassador. any chance that east jerusalem would go to the palestinians? that one is wide open, and the president didn t say anything about jerusalem. he said that s one that ll have to be dealt with rick: that s the toughest thing, isn t it? that is the toughest thing. plus, as he said, the refugee issue is tough. rick: ambassador ned walker, we really appreciate you talking to us, sir. thanks very much. thank you. jenna: well, we have this developing story out of virginia. a man with a suspicious device in a boat outside a nuclear
you ve got to start with something, you start with the 67 borders, and then you say, well, we re going to swap 200 acres, or we re going to swap five square miles or whatever. you have no idea where the border s going to end up after you have a negotiation between the sides. rick: but if that s where you start, ambassador, where do you go there there? it seems like he s selling the farm right out of the gate, you know, giving up a little bit too much, too soon before they even sit down with the palestinians who are in a nice little cozy relationship with a terror organization that doesn t even recognize israel. yeah. that is certainly the position the israelis feel is taking place, and there is certain logic to that that once you ve established a starting point, that it is prejudicial in favor of the palestinian position. but in the many different negotiations i ve had with the israelis and the palestinians over a period of years, i ve never seen them shy about making
after president obama making a sharp split with israel over the issue of borders for a possible future palestinian state. joining us now is ambassador ned walker, the former ambassador to israel, to the arab republic of egypt and also to the united arab emirates, so he knows the region well. it s always good to talk to you, sir, thanks for being with us. wouldn t you like to be a fly on the wall at this working lunch between these two guys? what do you think is going on there? well, i think there s going to be a little bit of heated exchange partly about the public s version of what has been said and the misinterpretations of what has been said about the president s speech. rick: what are the misinterpretations? well, a lot of people are saying that he s called for israel to go back to 67 borders. he did not do that. what he did was he said that the 67 borders should form a basis for the negotiations, and that would simply mean to me that that s where your starting point, it s