Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, in the speech where he addressed Israel, settlements and Palestinian statehood.

Barack Obama’s Statements on Israel: A Timeline From 2008 to 2026

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Published Oct. 16, 2026. Updated Oct. 16, 2026, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Obama’s Belfast remarks.

Barack Obama’s statements on Israel span 18 years, from a June 2008 campaign speech to AIPAC to remarks he made in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Oct. 13, 2026. Some themes have stayed the same: he has backed Israel’s security and supported a two-state solution. Other parts of his message have changed, especially on settlements, borders and, since Oct. 7, 2023, on how Israel has waged the war in Gaza. This timeline uses only his own words, quoted from Obama White House archives, official transcripts and major news outlets, with the date and setting of each.

This report covers what Obama said, not what he privately thought or intended. Where others responded, their statements are attributed to them.

2008 campaign: the AIPAC speech and Jerusalem

On June 4, 2008, the day after he clinched the Democratic nomination, then-Sen. Obama addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington. “Let me be clear. Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable,” he said, according to NPR’s transcript. He said any agreement with the Palestinians “must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders,” and added: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

In the same speech, he called on Israel to “refrain from building new settlements,” as it had agreed to do with the Bush administration at Annapolis. The next day, The Washington Post reported, Obama said in a CNN interview that Jerusalem’s status would be “up to the parties to negotiate,” which the Post described as backing away from the “undivided” line.

Barack Obama talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on May 18, 2009.
Obama and Netanyahu in the Oval Office, May 18, 2009. Photo: Pete Souza, Official White House Photo, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

2009: the Cairo speech on an “unbreakable” bond and settlements

Speaking at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, President Obama described the U.S.-Israel relationship this way: “America’s strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable.” He tied the case for a Jewish homeland to “a tragic history that cannot be denied,” referring to centuries of persecution and the Holocaust.

The same speech held some of his sharpest lines on settlements and Palestinian conditions. “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” he said, adding that “it is time for these settlements to stop.” He also said: “The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable,” and pledged that “America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.” He called on Palestinians to abandon violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist.

2011: the “1967 lines” and the clarification at AIPAC

On May 19, 2011, in a State Department speech on the Middle East and North Africa, Obama set out a public U.S. position on borders: “We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.” He also said that “every state has the right to self-defense.”

Three days later, on May 22, Obama returned to the phrase at AIPAC, saying “my position has been misrepresented several times.” He then explained: “By definition, it means that the parties themselves — Israelis and Palestinians — will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967.” He called it “a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation.”

2013: speaking to Israelis in Jerusalem

On his first trip to Israel as president, Obama spoke to Israeli students in Jerusalem on March 21, 2013. He laid out three points: “First, peace is necessary.” Then: “Peace is also just.” And finally: “Peace is possible. It is possible. I’m not saying it’s guaranteed.” He also asked his audience to see the conflict from the Palestinian side: “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 their own.” In the same speech, he said the United States would oppose unilateral Palestinian efforts at the United Nations to bypass negotiations.

2016: a record aid package and the UN Resolution 2334 abstention

On Sept. 14, 2016, the two governments signed a new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding on security aid. In his statement, Obama said the MOU “constitutes the single largest pledge of military assistance in U.S. history, totaling $38 billion over 10 years, including $33 billion in FMF funds and an additional $5 billion in missile defense funding.” A White House fact sheet said it covers fiscal years 2019 through 2028, or $3.8 billion a year, and replaces a $30 billion MOU signed in 2007.

Three months later, on Dec. 23, 2016, the United States abstained as the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 by a 14-0 vote. The resolution said Israeli settlements in territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have “no legal validity.” According to the UN’s summary of the meeting, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said settlements undermined Israel’s security and that the United States would not have let the resolution pass had it not addressed terrorism and incitement. Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, described the day as a bad one for his country, the UN summary said.

At his final news conference on Jan. 18, 2017, Obama defended the decision. “I think the status quo is unsustainable, that it is dangerous for Israel, that it is bad for Palestinians, it is bad for the region, and it is bad for America’s national security,” he said. He described the abstention as “a wake-up call” and warned that without two states, “functionally you end up having one state in which millions of people are disenfranchised.”

After Oct. 7, 2023: support for Israel, warnings on Gaza

On Oct. 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas-led attack, Obama posted on X: “All Americans should be horrified and outraged by the brazen terrorist attacks on Israel and the slaughter of innocent civilians.” He said Americans should “stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it dismantles Hamas,” and added that “we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

In a longer statement on Oct. 23, 2023, he backed President Joe Biden’s support for Israel but wrote that “how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters.” He wrote that “any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire,” and that the decision “to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population” could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and “erode global support for Israel,” as quoted by Reuters and The Guardian.

On the Pod Save America podcast, in excerpts released Nov. 4, 2023, Obama said: “What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.” He also said: “You have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree,” as reported by CNN and Politico.

2025: starvation warnings, Dublin and the ceasefire

In July 2025, Obama wrote on X that “a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations,” and pointed to “the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation,” The Hill reported. Speaking in Dublin on Sept. 26, 2025, he said “there’s not a military rationale for continuing to pummel what is already rubble” and called for “a path in which a Palestinian state and autonomy exist side by side with a secure Israel,” according to a transcript cited by CNN.

When the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal was announced, Obama wrote on Oct. 9, 2025, that “we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight.” He said it now fell to Israelis and Palestinians “to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza.” The Hill noted that his statement did not mention President Donald Trump, who announced the deal. For the ceasefire’s first-year record, see our report on the Gaza ceasefire anniversary.

October 2026: the Belfast remarks and Netanyahu’s reply

On Oct. 13, 2026, in an onstage conversation with journalist Susan McKay at Belfast’s O2 arena, Obama said Israel “took land off people and they were expelled,” and that “those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back,'” according to The Irish Times as cited by The Times of Israel. He added: “If the attitude of Israel is now that we are the strongest, the most technologically advanced in the region, then our security will depend on us simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone. That may work short term, but you have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take.”

In the same event, he said “the Jewish people, for millennia, were oppressed, discriminated against, killed,” and that “they understandably sought a refuge.” He also told Palestinians that Israel’s strength “requires a strategy that is not premised on beating their military,” and said of the Oct. 7 attack: “you could not have designed something that was less likely to produce meaningful change.”

Netanyahu answered in a video on Oct. 16, 2026. “The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers,” he said. “Our history is not a colonial enterprise. Our land is not stolen land.” The exchange comes ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election; see our look at whether Netanyahu can win, based on the polls.

What has stayed the same, and what has changed

Across 18 years, three positions appear in nearly every period: support for Israel’s security and right to defend itself, support for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and opposition to settlement expansion. The emphasis has moved. As a candidate in 2008 he called Israel’s security “sacrosanct.” As president he paired a record $38 billion aid pledge with public pressure on settlements and a decision not to veto Resolution 2334. Since leaving office, and especially since 2023, his public statements have put more weight on civilian harm in Gaza and on the founding grievances Palestinians describe, which drew a direct public rebuttal from Israel’s prime minister this week.

For current U.S. policy toward the region, see our Presidency Tracker, our report on U.S. strike planning against Iran, and how Congress is voting on foreign policy in our Congress Tracker.

Featured photo: Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University, June 4, 2009. Photo: Chuck Kennedy, Official White House Photo, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

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