Netanyahu to Obama: Israel has not given up hope for a two-state solution
WASHINGTON – Israel’s security remains a top priority of the Obama administration amidst a deteriorating security landscape across the Middle East, the president said on Monday, sitting alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office.
Meeting with the Israeli premier for the sixteenth time since taking office in 2009, and for the first time since the successful brokerage of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran over the summer, President Obama said the focus of their discussion would be a future US defense package that will last a decade.
“This is going to be an opportunity for the prime minister and myself to engage in a wide-ranging discussion on some of the most pressing security issues that both our countries face,” Obama said before the meeting. “It’s no secret that the security environment in the Middle East has deteriorated in many areas, and as I’ve said repeatedly, the security of Israel is one of my top foreign policy priorities. And that’s expressed itself not only in words, but in deeds.”
The two also discussed the recent wave of terrorism across Israel and the West Bank, which has claimed dozens of Israeli and Palestinian casualties over the course of the last month.
“We condemn in the strongest terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens,” Obama added, noting the recent flareup of violence. “It is my strong belief that Israel has not just the right, but the obligation to protect itself.”
While the president referenced his well-known disagreement with Netanyahu over the nuclear deal, he said that both stood together in their commitment to preventing Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. Netanyahu took the opportunity to thank Obama for his commitment to Israel’s security.
“We’re with each other in more ways than one,” Netanyahu said, praising the US-Israel alliance. “I think its rooted in shared values, and its buttressed by shared interests. And its driven forward by a sense of a shared destiny.”
“We are obviously tested today by the instability and the insecurity of the Middle East,” he continued. “I think this is a tremendously important opportunity for us to work together, to see how we can defend ourselves against this aggression and this terror– how we can role it back. Its a daunting task.”
The prime minister assured Obama that Israel has not given up its hope for peace, saying that he still wishes to see “two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes a Jewish state.”
The Israeli government hopes to secure an increase in US aid from the current $3 billion a year to $5 billion.
In the Oval meeting alongside the two premiers was Vice President Joe Biden, the president’s national security advisor Susan Rice and the ambassadors from both nations, Ron Dermer and Dan Shapiro.
JPOST.COM
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