Obama Presses Israel to Make ‘Hard Choices’

News story	Words	Meanings
President Obama struck back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, defending his stance that talks over a Palestinian state should be focused on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, along with negotiated land swaps, and challenging Israel to “make the hard choices” necessary to bring about a stable peace. Mr. Obama, speaking before a conference of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, offered familiar assurances that the United States’ commitment to Israel’s long-term security was “ironclad.” But citing the rising political upheaval near Israel’s borders, he presented his peace plan as the best chance Israel has to avoid growing isolation. Administration officials said Mr. Obama chose to confront Israel on the stalled peace negotiations after his aides calculated that given the historic upheaval under way in the Arab world, the United States and Israel would both benefit from being seen as taking bold steps toward ending the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians. (The New York Times, May 22, 2011)	struck back	hit back
	lobbying	trying to influence; pushing
	stance	position; view; opinion
	negotiated	discussed
	swaps	acts of exchanging one thing for another
	challenging	stimulating; suggesting strongly (that somebody should do something)
	bring about	create
	assurances	promises; guarantees
	ironclad	able to be depended on; without flaws or loopholes
	upheaval	sudden or violent changes
	stalled	halted; brought to a standstill
	aides	advisors
	historic	significant; important
	upheaval	disruption; violent or sudden change or disruption
	impasse	deadlock; a situation in which no progress can be made

Model sentences and idiomatic expressions with “negotiate”:

• The government has refused to negotiate with the strikers.

• I'm negotiating for a new contract.

• I've managed to negotiate (= get by discussion) a five per cent pay increase with my boss.

• Union leaders have negotiated an agreement for a shorter working week.

• His first aim is to get the warring parties back to the negotiating table (=discussing something).

• We want to negotiate a settlement that is fair to both sides.

• They negotiated the sale of the house.

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the following words:

1. historic 2. impasse 3. lobbying 4. stalled 5. aide

1. The senator asked an  . . . . . to distribute copies of his speech.

2. Talks have reached an  . . . . . .

3. Women's groups are  . . . . . to get more public money for children.

4. The peace process remained . . . . . .

5. In a . . . . . vote, the Church of England decided to allow women to become priests.

Answer key: 1. aide 2. impasse 3. lobbying 4. stalled 5. historic