Netanyahu rejects Obama criticism before Israel election

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected criticism from former US president Barack Obama days before Israel's October 27 election, after Obama said Israel had "ceded moral high ground" in its treatment of the Palestinians.

Obama made the remarks at an event Tuesday in Belfast, according to videos posted online. He said he had told Netanyahu during his presidency that "the stronger party has a responsibility by virtue of its strength" and warned that Israel's security could not depend on "doing whatever we please and taking whatever we want" without concessions.

Obama also criticised Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Israeli media focused on another part of his comments, in which he said Jewish people had sought refuge in a land with historic ties after centuries of persecution, but also said Palestinians had been expelled and saw that as an injustice.

Netanyahu posted a video quoting Obama and called the remarks "regrettable". He said Jewish people were not "foreign occupiers" and that their history was not "a colonial enterprise".

"Our land is not stolen land," Netanyahu said. "This is our homeland. It's called Judea," he added, using a biblical term for the southern West Bank, which Israel seized in 1967.

Netanyahu had a tense relationship with Obama during the Democrat's 2009-2017 presidency, including over Obama's diplomacy with Iran. Netanyahu has since closely aligned himself with US President Donald Trump.

The exchange comes before a tight Israeli election in which Netanyahu has repeatedly told voters that foreign figures want him to lose.