The much-anticipated meeting of President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu has come and gone. There were the usual kumbaya statements from both leaders. They declared they would try to find a way to improve what has been a baneful relationship between them.
While they both proclaimed they have not given up on the goal of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, they acknowledged a peace agreement before the end of Mr. Obama’s term was not in the cards. There was, however, an understanding that there would be efforts on Israel’s part to ease tensions with Palestinians. The U.S. and Israel will also continue to discuss substantially increased military aid to Israel given the nuclear agreement with Iran and Iran’s continued support for Israel’s terrorist enemies.
So both sides seemed to be ready to move beyond continuing the debate over what is or is not embedded in the Iran agreement or whether it is or is not a good deal. Yet, even aside from the all-important question of whether the terms of the agreement will, in fact, result in the scuttling of Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, there remain at least two significant collateral issues:
First, will Mr. Netanyahu assuage the feeling of many Democrats – including many Jewish Americans – that his fierce lobbying against the Iran deal, in Congress and elsewhere, turned it into a partisan political issue?
Second, will Iran’s having signed on to the nuclear agreement effectively give it a free pass to intimidate other nations in the region and continue to support terrorist activities around the world?
Thus, for his part, President Obama said at the start of his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu,
It’s no secret that the prime minister and I have had a strong disagreement on this narrow issue [of Iran]. 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 blunting destabilizing activities in Iran that may be taking place. And so we’re going to be looking to make sure we find common ground there.
And he stressed that
[T]he security of Israel is one of my top foreign policy priorities and that has expressed itself not only in words but in deeds…. We have closer military intelligence and cooperation than any two administrations in history…. The military assistance we provide we consider not only an important part of our obligation to the state of Israel, but also an important part of US security infrastructure in the region.
As to the current epidemic of Palestinian attacks on Israelis, the president said: “I want to be very clear that we condemn in the strongest terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens and I want to repeat once again that it is my strong belief that Israel has not just the right but an obligation to protect itself.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu was at least as conciliatory, never even mentioning the Iran deal, and directed these comments to the president:
We’re with each other in more ways than one, and I want to thank you for this opportunity to strengthen our friendship, which is strong, strengthen our alliance, which is strong…. I want to make it clear that we have not given up our hope for peace – we’ll never give up or hope for peace.… And I remain committed to a vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state….
He went out of his way to praise crucial American military assistance to Israel: “Israel has shouldered a tremendous defense burden over the years,” he said, “and we’ve done it with the generous assistance of the United States of America.” And he extolled Mr. Obama’s role in providing that aid.