WASHINGTON - Insisting that the bond between their two nations was
"unbreakable", United States President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu emerged all smiles from their long-awaited White House
meeting here on Tuesday.
Speaking before reporters, the two men, whose last encounter here in March
appeared to confirm a crisis in bilateral ties, lavished compliments on each
other.
"[T]he fact of the matter is, is that I've trusted Prime Minister Netanyahu
since I met him before I was elected president," declared Obama before the two
leaders were joined by their top aides for a working lunch.
In particular, Obama praised Netanyahu "on the progress that's
been made in allowing more goods into Gaza" in the wake of international
outrage directed against Israel's lethal May 31 attack on a Turkish flotilla
carrying humanitarian goods to the besieged Palestinian territory, and on his
"willingness to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians around
what I think should be the goal ... of two states living side-by-side in peace
and security".
And he reassured the Israeli leader that Washington's policy on Israel's
nuclear weapons program has not changed despite the US decision in April not to
oppose a consensus by parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
calling on the Jewish state to join the pact.
"I reiterated to the prime minister that there is no change in US policy when
it comes to these issues," Obama said. "We strongly believe that, given its
size, its history, the region that it's in, and the threats that are leveled
... against it, that Israel has unique security requirements."
An official White House readout of the meeting released later on Tuesday said
Obama had told Netanyahu that "he recognizes that ... only Israel can determine
its security needs".
For his part, Netanyahu expressed satisfaction with Washington's role last
month in persuading other members of the United Nations Security Council to
impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, insisting that they "create
delegitimization for Iran's nuclear program". He also praised new unilateral US
sanctions signed into law by Obama last week, adding that they "actually have
teeth. They bite."
"The reports about the demise of the special US-Israel relationship aren't just
premature; they're just flat wrong," said Netanyahu.
Tuesday's meeting, which was originally to have taken place on June 2 but was
rescheduled when Netanyahu rushed back home from a visit to Canada to deal with
the diplomatic crisis that followed the attack on the flotilla, appeared
designed to serve the domestic political interests of both principals.
Obama has been eager to shore up support, particularly for Democratic
candidates in November's mid-term congressional elections, in the Jewish
community which, despite its small size, accounts for as much as 40% of all
campaign contributions to the party.
The contretemps in March - which began when Jerusalem's municipal authorities
announced a settlement project during the visit of Vice President Joseph Biden
and culminated with a White House decision to ban photos of Obama's meeting
with Netanyahu two weeks later - was seized on by Republicans as evidence of
the president's insensitivity or hostility to Israel. Unnerved, a number of
influential liberal Jewish leaders and Democratic lawmakers pressed the
administration to "kiss and make up" with Netanyahu.
"From a diplomatic perspective, this was a meaningless PR exercise that simply
confirms the degree to which Obama remains beholden to the 'status quo' lobby,"
said Stephen Walt, a Harvard professor on international relations and co-author
of The Israel Lobby.
"It's designed to show that US-Israeli relations are still just fine and
intended to keep 'pro-Israel' dollars flowing into the Democratic Party's
coffers in the run-up to the November mid-terms," he added.
Netanyahu was similarly concerned that the perception of a major rift with
Washington, Israel's closest ally and supporter by far for nearly 50 years,
could cost him politically at home.
Moreover, the flotilla fiasco, in which eight Turkish civilians and one dual
Turkish-American citizen were killed by Israeli commandos who seized the ship
in international waters, served only to deepen Israel's international isolation
and heighten the strategic importance to Israel of Washington's continued
backing.
"Both sides have a strong interest in this meeting being seen as putting the
troubles behind us," said one administration official who deals with Middle
East issues before Tuesday's talks.
In their public remarks, both leaders exhorted Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas to enter into direct peace talks with Netanyahu as soon as
possible. Obama's special envoy George Mitchell has so far held five sessions
of "proximity talks" between the two sides.
Abbas, who met with Obama at the White House last month, has said the talks
have not yet made sufficient progress on key issues to warrant direct talks,
and the president's efforts to persuade Saudi King Abdullah, whom he hosted
here just last week, to press the Palestinian leader on the issue reportedly
fell short.
Washington is particularly worried that a lack of tangible progress - including
initiating direct talks - by mid-September will likely raise tensions
throughout the region. Netanyahu would likely come under heavy pressure from
his own Likud Party and its far-right partners in his government to end his
moratorium on Jewish settlement activity on the West Bank, and Arab League
backing for proximity talks will expire at the same time.
"My hope is ... that once direct talks have begun, well before the moratorium
has expired, that that will create a climate in which everybody feels a greater
investment in success," said Obama, who also hailed what he called the Israeli
government's "restraint" in settlement activity over the past several months.
He also suggested that Washington wants Netanyahu to permit the PA's US-trained
and equipped security forces to control a broader area in the West Bank as a
key confidence-building measure that could help entice Abbas into direct talks
in the coming weeks.
While Obama insisted that he believed Netanyahu was "prepared" to work toward a
peace settlement that included a "sovereign state" for the Palestinians,
however, Netanyahu was far more vague. He spoke about his eagerness to "explore
the possibility of peace" and insisted on the importance of achieving a "secure
peace" that would not "repeat ... the situation [in Gaza] where we vacate
territories, and those are taken by Iran's proxies and used as launching ground
for terrorist or rocket attacks."
Instead, Netanyahu focused his remarks on the importance of implementing
sanctions against Iran, which he described as "the greatest new threat on the
horizon".
One analyst said Obama's remarks appeared designed in part to establish linkage
between progress on the Palestinian-Israeli front and further pressure on Iran.
"Obama was saying he's now delivered on tough sanctions on Iran, and he's
pressing Netanyahu on what he's going to do in return," said Steve Clemons,
head of the American Strategy program at the New America Foundation. "He's
trying to be a calculating deal-maker and push the reset button with Netanyahu.
If Netanyahu doesn't respond, things could get much worse."
Jim Lobe's blog on US foreign policy can be read at http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
