President Barack Obama, in a Huffington Post interview, had this to say about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-election remarks about a Palestinian state:

We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region[.]

It would be good if Obama really did take Netanyahu at his word; this is what the PM actually said:

I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel.

Anyone who ignores this is sticking his head in the sand.

Nothing in there about “no Palestinian state on my watch.” This is just what Israeli governments have been saying ever since they agreed to the principle. The only way there can be a two state solution is if the second state also is committed to two states and not to the destruction of Israel. At present, that’s not the case.

Obama also said in that interview,

[I]t is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible.

As long as Obama continues to distort other people’s statements, it truly will be hard for people seriously to believe that negotiations are possible.