Obama said there are “profound us concerns about the corrosive effect that settlement activity, that is continuing when the occupation enters its 50th year, is having on the prospects” for peace. This news story is related to Latest/151633-Obama-tells-Netanyahu-of-US-concern-on-settlements-urges-peace/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
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“We’ll set up a tee time”, replied Mr. Obama, in what appeared to be a mere pleasantry. Netanyahu, meanwhile, defended the Israeli settlement activity in a meeting that ran only about 35 minutes.
“They’ve never papered over their differences”, another senior administration official said.
“Israel has no greater friend than the United States of America, and America has no greater friend than Israel”.
At the start of his remarks, Natanyahu thanked the United States for signing a military aid package earlier this month to provide Israel with almost $40 billion over the next decade.
“It allows the Israelis to have some kind of certainty in a moment when there’s enormous uncertainty in the region”. He said the USA agreed to the extended military aid plan because “we want to make sure Israel has the full capability it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe”.
He thanked Obama for the recently signed 10-year, $38 million military aid agreement, which Netanyahu said “ensures that Israel can defend itself against any threat”.
Relations between Netanyahu and the Obama White House have been strained over the Iran nuclear deal, among other issues; the disagreements came to a head previous year at the United Nations when Netanyahu invoked the Holocaust during his address to the General Assembly, dramatically inveighing against the “silence” of the worldwide community, including Obama, in confronting Iran. One thing I can say about Prime Minister Netanyahu is he has always been candid with us, and his team has cooperated very effectively with ours.
“I think he’d want to make a determination about how can he be most constructive in supporting a vision that he cares about, which is an Israel that has security and peace with the Palestinian people and a Palestine that is sovereign and independent”, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said on Tuesday.
“Obviously I’m only going to be president for another few months”.
The tense relationship between Obama and Netanyahu over the past eight years will probably increase pressure on the president’s successor to find a solution to the Israel-Palestine problem.
“It is based on common values, family ties, a recognition that the Jewish state of Israel is one of our most important allies”, he said.
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Even as the USA continues to voice its opposition to the West Bank settlements, Israel has demanded tighter Palestinian security to crack down on militants responsible for a raft of stabbings and shootings against Israelis in recent months.
