President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded conciliatory notes as they began their meeting at the White House Monday, with Netanyahu noting “shared values”, “shared interests” and “a shared destiny”.
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But everyone did their best not to show it during Monday’s Oval Office meeting when the two leaders shook hands twice, says Sky News’ Washington correspondent.
Their tense personal relationship took a turn for the worse when Netanyahu came to Washington in the spring to publicly campaign against Obama’s support for an worldwide agreement to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb.
“I will discuss with the prime minister his thoughts on how we can lower tensions between Israelis and Palestinians”, Obama said, “how we can get back on track towards peace and how we can make sure that legitimate Palestinian aspirations are met through a political process that keeps Israel secure”.
“Sometime in the following two years” of the 2016 USA presidential elections, Israel wants to use the weapons it will receive from the United States to target the nuclear “sites where Iran is developing nuclear capacities for peaceful usage”, he noted. “We want to make sure Israel can defend itself”. He assures that they haven’t given up in their hopes for peace and a demilitarized Palestinian state. Instead, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the focus will instead be on keeping peace talks possible for a future administration and looking for the kinds of measures that might rebuild a few trust, reduce tensions and “leave open the promise of a two-state solution”. Last month, Netanyahu spoke out at a UN General Assembly, saying he was very concerned that world leaders had celebrated the Iran nuclear deal and quoted a few of the Iranian leaders who are still calling for the destruction of Israel.
“We’ll have an opportunity to discuss how we can blunt the activities of ISIL”, he said, using an acronym for Islamic State, “and Hezbollah”, the Lebanese militia that often acts as a proxy for Iran.
“We have never given up our hope for peace”, Netanyahu told Obama on Monday at the White House in remarks to the media prior to their closed meeting.
The Israeli leader also said he continues to seek peace with Palestinians.
Obama himself stressed the importance of Israel’s security, noting that he has “repeatedly” said that protecting Israel was one of his top foreign policy priorities.
Hoffman says the high point of that skirmish was Mr. Netanyahu addressing a joint session of Congress in March trying to sway lawmakers to reject Mr. Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.
Obama said that they would spend time working on the memorandum.
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Israel now receives about $3 billion dollars a year from the USA for defense purposes. Baratz has called Obama anti-Semitic and has also criticized US Secretary of State John Kerry.
