WASHINGTON – President Obama sought to reassure Israel and its supporters of “ironclad” U.S. support Sunday in a speech to a Jewish lobbying group that also warned that time could be running out for a peace accord with Palestinians.

Obama, wading afresh into a topic that evoked anger from Israeli leaders last week, insisted again that 1967 boundary lines should be the starting point for talks on a new Palestinian state. But he allowed that the dividing line would be negotiated to accommodate Israeli settlements and security needs.

Additional Photos

A painting of President Obama stands next to a replica pint of Guinness in a shop in Moneygall, Ireland, on Saturday. As part of his visit, Obama is expected to stop at a pub in Moneygall, the ancestral homeland of his great-great-great-grandfather. The Associated Press

“Israelis and Palestinians will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967,” Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at its annual conference in Washington.

While sticking to the views he outlined in a Middle East policy speech Thursday, Obama more clearly aligned his position on borders to one espoused by the George W. Bush administration in 2004. The Bush White House had concluded that a return to the precise boundaries that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War was “not realistic,” because of the presence of large Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Acknowledging that Israel faced “hard choices” and security risks, Obama argued that stalling on peace negotiations posed even greater dangers for the country’s survival. The Arab Spring movement and changing demographic forces — including growing numbers of Palestinians west of the Jordan River — present long-term challenges to Israel that will be resolved only by the creation of separate homelands for Jews and Palestinians, he said.

Meanwhile, Israel faces increasing political isolation as Palestinians press their demands for international recognition of a Palestinian state, Obama said.

“No matter how hard it may be to start meaningful negotiations under current circumstances, we must acknowledge that a failure to try is not an option,” he said. “The status quo is unsustainable.”

Obama also reiterated themes of unshakable support for Israel that brought loud applause from the packed auditorium of nearly 10,000. He affirmed U.S. opposition to a Palestinian plan to seek a vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Palestinian statehood in September. He vowed to help Israel defend itself, promising U.S. military assistance on missile defense and pledging to block Iranian nuclear aspirations. And he assailed a recent Palestinian unity agreement that elevated the stature of the Hamas movement, which both the United States and Israel regard as a terrorist group.

Obama said he was not surprised by the uproar over his Thursday speech but added that “if there is controversy, it is not based on substance.”

“What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately,” he said. “I’ve done so because we can’t afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades to achieve peace. The world is moving too fast. The extraordinary challenges facing Israel will only grow. Delay will undermine Israel’s security and the peace that the Israeli people deserve.”

While the president’s core message differed little, Obama appeared to have succeeded in easing the concerns of at least some Israelis who had sharply criticized his speech Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with Obama for more than two hours Friday, issued a statement saying he was “determined to work with President Obama to find ways to renew peace negotiations.”

“I share the president’s desire to advance peace and I appreciate his efforts, past and present, to achieve this goal,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.

The Israeli leader, initially angered by Obama’s call for 1967 border lines as a starting point for negotiations, has since told aides that he now is reassured about Obama’s intentions.

Josh Block, a former AIPAC spokesman and senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, said Obama’s speech Sunday was a “strong reaffirmation of the U.S.-Israel relationship and represented an important and positive change” from his remarks Thursday.

“By adding a whole section to the speech that was missing on Thursday, President Obama put himself in line with presidents since Lyndon Johnson who have said again and again, Israel cannot go back to the 1949/1967 lines,” Block said. “This is an important and crucial change from what he said last week.”

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