WASHINGTON (EJP)—‘’The greatest challenge, undoubtedly, is to prevent Iran from acquiring the capacity to make nuclear weapons,’’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Monday US President Baack Obama in a meeting at the White House.
‘’I think that goal can be achieved if Iran is prevented from enriching uranium and dismantles fully its military nuclear installations,’’ he added.
He continued, ‘’if that goal can be achieved peacefully and through diplomacy, I can tell you that no country has a greater stake in this than Israel.”
‘’As you know and I’m sure you’ll appreciate, Iran calls openly for Israel’s destruction, so I’m sure you’ll appreciate that Israel cannot permit such a state to have the ability to make atomic bombs to achieve that goal. We just cannot be brought back again to the brink of destruction. And I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, will do whatever I must do to defend the Jewish state,’’ Netanyahu said.
On the Israel-Palestinian US-borkered peace talks, the Israeli premier thanked Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry for the “tireless efforts” that Kerry “has put into this quest.”
‘’The 20 years that have passed since Israel entered the peace process have been marked by unprecedented steps that Israel has taken to advance peace. I mean, we vacated cities in Judea and Samaria. We left entirely Gaza. We’ve not only frozen settlements, we’ve uprooted entire settlements. We’ve released hundreds of terrorist prisoners, including dozens in recent months,’’ Netanyahu stressed.
He said that Israel ‘’got in return scores of suicide bombings, thousands of rockets on our cities fired from the areas we vacated, and just incessant Palestinian incitement against Israel.,’’ adding that ‘’Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t.’’
He said that the people of Israel ‘’want peace.’’ ‘’What we all want fervently is peace. Not a piece a paper –- although that, too — but a real peace; a peace that is anchored in mutual recognition of two nation states that recognize and respect one another, and solid security arrangements on the ground.’’
‘’Mr. President, you rightly said that Israel, the Jewish state, is the realization of the Jewish people’s self-determination in our ancestral homeland. So the Palestinians expect us to recognize a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, a nation state for the Palestinian people. I think it’s about time they recognize a nation state for the Jewish people. We’ve only been there for 4,000 years.’’
He expressed the hope that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ‘’will take seriously Israel’s genuine security needs.’’
He added : ‘’As you know and I think everybody does, in the Middle East, which is definitely the most turbulent and violent part of the Earth, the only peace that will endure is a peace that we can defend. And we’ve learned from our history — Jewish history, but I think from general history — that the best way to guarantee peace is to be strong.
‘’That’s what the people of Israel expect me to do, to stand strong against criticism, against pressure, stand strong to secure the future of the one and only Jewish state.’’
In his remarks at the start of his meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, President Obama said:”It’s a pleasure to welcome once again Prime Minister Netanyahu to the Oval Office. There’s nobody I’ve met with more or consulted with more than Bibi. And it’s a testimony to the incredible bond between our two nations. I’ve said before and I will repeat, we do not have a closer friend or ally than Israel and the bond between our two countries and our two peoples in unbreakable.”