US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered radically divergent approaches to the perils of a nuclear-armed Iran on Monday, even as they tried to cool down the personal nature of a long-distance dispute that has inflamed relations between the US and Israel for more than a month.
On the eve of Netanyahu’s hotly debated address to US Congress, the two leaders separately disclaimed personal animosity, while laying out what amounts to the biggest policy schism between the two nations in years. Obama defended his diplomatic efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran, while Netanyahu presented them as dangerously naive.
“I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” Netanyahu told thousands of Israel supporters in Washington. “For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless. Today, we are no longer silent. Today, we have a voice, and tomorrow, as prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, I plan to use that state.”
Photo: Bloomberg
In an interview a few hours later, Obama said that he and Netanyahu had a “substantial disagreement” over how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but he suggested that Netanyahu was an alarmist, saying that the Israeli leader had been unduly skeptical of a preliminary accord intended to slow the Iranian nuclear program during negotiations aimed at a longer-term resolution.
“Netanyahu made all sorts of claims — this was going to be a terrible deal, this was going to result in Iran getting US$50 billion worth of relief, Iran would not abide by the agreement,” Obama said. “None of that has come true.”
Obama said that any deal would have to ensure that Iran was not capable of building a nuclear weapon in less than a year and that the agreement must stand for at least 10 years.
“If they do agree to it, it would be far more effective in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take, and far more effective than sanctions will be,” Obama said.
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, coming just two weeks before Israeli elections and three weeks before a deadline on the Iran talks, has polarized politicians in both countries. The prime minister’s speech he was due to give to a joint meeting of US Congress yesterday — arranged by Speaker John Boehner without consulting the White House — immediately took on a partisan flavor and Obama refused to meet with Netanyahu because his visit comes so close to the Israeli elections.
US Vice President Joe Biden and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip Netanyahu’s speech.
While the White House has not publicly encouraged a boycott, it sent an e-mail late on Monday inviting House Democrats or their aides to a trade meeting at the White House on Tuesday at a time that would make it hard for them to attend the speech.
“This is not a personal issue,” Obama said. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the US has a process of making policy.”
Netanyahu, appearing before an estimated 16,000 supporters of Israel, characterized the disagreement over Iran as a family fight that would ultimately be overcome, and he expressed his gratitude to Obama for his support of Israel over the years.
“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Netanyahu told the crowd, which greeted him with a standing ovation. “I have great respect for both.”
He said he was sorry if anyone interpreted his visit as a political shot at Obama.
“The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that,” he said. “Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”
However, he emphasized that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran looked different from Jerusalem than it does from Washington.
“American leaders worry about the security of their country,” Netanyahu said. “Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.”
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