President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to reverse what he said is an “undertow of isolation,” saying the Jewish state has “true partners” in Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority President, and Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister.

In a speech Thursday in Jerusalem to scores of university students, Obama said peace in the Middle East is necessary because it is the only true path to security.
 
“First, peace is necessary”, Obama said. “Indeed, it is the only path to true security.  Given the frustration in the international community, Israel must reverse an undertow of isolation. And given the march of technology, the only way to truly protect the Israeli people is through the absence of war - because no wall is high enough, and no Iron Dome is strong enough, to stop every enemy from inflicting harm”.

“Second, peace is just. But the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes - look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student's ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land,” he asserted.

He also insisted that now was the time for the Arab world to start normalizing relations with the Jewish state.

“Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable, that real borders will have to be drawn,” Obama said in a nationally televised speech.

Obama, coupling his push for a more conciliatory Israeli approach to the Palestinians with a reaffirmation of his commitment to Israel’s security, also promised that Washington will “do what it must to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Obama is on his first visit to the close U.S. ally Israel as President. He spoke after a trip to the West Bank, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.