Obama warns Israel of stark choice ahead

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - In the twilight of his presidency, outgoing chief executive Barack Obama issued a stern ultimatum to Israel: choose democracy or a single state.

"The status quo is unsustainable," Obama said.

The American president said Israel's unabated construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank "are creating a reality on the ground that increasingly will make a two-state solution impossible".

Without a two-state solution "I don’t see how this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish and a democracy" Obama told reporters.

“Functionally you end up having one state in which millions of people are disenfranchised and operate as second-class residents … you can’t even call them citizens necessarily,” Obama said.

He said he worried the long-sought blueprint for an end to the conflict is steadily falling out of reach, but said the U.S. cannot force the parties to arrive at a peaceful resolution.

The UN voted last month to condemn Israel's Jewish-only settlements, saying that they are illegal and "an obstacle" to peace. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. broke from past practice of vetoing similar resolutions, and abstained instead.

The vote was a "wakeup call" to Israel's leaders that the prospects for a peaceful resolution are dwindling, Obama said.

Turning to his recent decision to dramatically reduce the prison sentence for WikiLeaks source, Chelsea Manning, Obama said her sentence was "disproportionate" to those of other leakers.

"She had served a significant amount of time," Obama said, and "it made sense to commute and not pardon her sentence."

"I feel very comfortable that justice has been served," he added.

Manning will be released May 17 after spending six years behind bars. She was serving a 35-year sentence that would not have seen her release until 2045.

Her commutation has riled critics who say that it will encourage additional mass disclosures, an objection Obama dismissed.

"The notion that the average person who was thinking about disclosing vital classified information would think that it goes unpunished I don't think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served," he said.

Obama will leave the White House for his final time as president Friday as Donald Trump assumes office.

Following his departure Obama plans to write a book and stay out of the political spotlight.

"I want to be quiet a little bit and not hear myself talk so darn much," he said.

Still, if Trump opts to pursue deportations of children brought to the U.S. illegally, a group that Obama has sought to protect through executive actions, Obama said he would not stay silent.

That "would be something that would merit me speaking out", he said.