“But we don’t have a disagreement on the need to making sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, and we don’t have a disagreement about us blunting destabilizing activities in Iran that may be taking place”, he added. “It’s a daunting task”, Netanyahu said.
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It’s seen as compensation for the Iran deal – a way of maintaining Israel’s military status in the Middle East.
“This is a very ominous scenario and it’s been discussed in many quarters”.
During Monday’s meeting, Obama could certainly use this daunting piece of news to stand up to Netanyahu and the Israeli occupation, but predictably the president won’t. Their relationship has always been marred by tension, with the most recent being the U.S.-backed nuclear deal with Iran. The current pact is set to expire in two years.
The prime minister refused, however, to address reporters’ questions about possible resolutions on the peace process in the United Nations Security Council and whether he and President Obama discussed the administration’s position of any such resolution.
“I don’t think that anyone should doubt Israel’s determination to defend itself against terror and destruction but neither should anyone doubt Israel’s willingness to make peace with any of its neighbors that genuinely want to achieve peace”, he said.
Mr Netanyahu is also in Washington to seek additional U.S. military assistance to Israel.
A Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard close to a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem before being shot by the victim.
Netanyahu spoke directly on the issue.
“We have not given up our hopes of peace”, Netanyahu said, stressing that Israel remains committed to a two-state solution, but also remains determined to protect itself against threats.
Mr Netanyahu reciprocated by trying to bury suggestions – fuelled by his own election campaign comments – that he does not support the creation of a Palestinian state.
“We are demonstrating in the streets around the appearances of Netanyahu as a statement to president Obama and Netanyahu that there is growing resistance to Israeli oppression and greater opposition to continued USA funding of Israel’s occupation”, Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., told teleSUR English Monday from the demonstration. But they also emphasized that Obama expected to hear from Netanyahu how he would preserve the two-state option.
While White House officials have been playing down expectations of completing their negotiations on the size of the new 10-year military aid package during this week’s visit, Obama made clear there was no question it would be renewed.
“If the politicians would not be so intimidated, and they could step back and see that religion could coexist”.
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Protestors demonstrate against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s talks with President Barack Obama outside the White House, calling for an end to US aid to Israel, November 9, 2015.
