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Obama Says Discord With Netanyahu Is Not ‘Permanently Destructive’
Obama Says Discord With Netanyahu Is Not ‘Permanently Destructive’
(about 2 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday said that his debate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a distraction but would not be “permanently destructive” to the relationship between the two countries, even as Mr. Obama outlined a sharply different vision of how to confront the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.
WASHINGTON — President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel 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 United States and Israel for more than a month.
In an interview on the eve of Mr. Netanyahu’s much-anticipated and hotly disputed address to Congress, Mr. Obama acknowledged that the two leaders had a “substantial disagreement” over Iran and defended his efforts to negotiate a diplomatic resolution. Any deal he would agree to, he said, would require Iran to freeze its nuclear program at least a decade.
On the eve of Mr. Netanyahu’s hotly debated address to Congress, the two leaders separately disclaimed personal animosity while laying out what amounts to the biggest policy schism between the two countries in years. Mr. Obama defended his diplomatic efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran while Mr. Netanyahu presented them as dangerously naïve.
”This is not a personal issue,” Mr. Obama told the Reuters news agency. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the U.S. has a process of making policy.”
“I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” Mr. Netanyahu told thousands of Israel supporters in Washington. “For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.” He added: “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.”
Having said that, he needled Mr. Netanyahu for making unfounded assertions about the dangers of a preliminary agreement struck with Iran that paved the way for the current talks.
In an interview a few hours later, Mr. Obama said that he and Mr. Netanyahu had a “substantial disagreement” over how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But he suggested that Mr. 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 $50 billion worth of relief, Iran would not abide by the agreement,” Mr. Obama said. “None of that has come true.”
“Netanyahu made all sorts of claims — this was going to be a terrible deal, this was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief, Iran would not abide by the agreement,” Mr. Obama told the Reuters news agency. “None of that has come true.”
The president’s interview came several hours after Mr. Netanyahu opened his high-profile visit to the American capital by playing down any personal dispute with Mr. Obama, but he said that he had a “moral obligation” to warn against the dangers of an American-brokered nuclear deal with Iran.
Mr. 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,” he said, “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.”
Mr. Netanyahu, previewing his address to Congress on Tuesday, said at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he was grateful to Mr. Obama and the United States for their support over the years and never meant to inject partisan politics into the relationship.
Mr. Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, coming just two weeks before Israeli elections and three weeks before a deadline in the Iran talks, has polarized politicians in both countries. The prime minister’s speech to a joint of meeting of Congress on Tuesday — arranged by Speaker John A. Boehner without consulting the White House — immediately took on a partisan flavor, and Mr. Obama refused to meet with Mr. Netanyahu because his visit comes so close to the Israeli elections.
He characterized the disagreement over Iran to a fight within a family that would ultimately be overcome.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. While the White House has not publicly encouraged a boycott, it sent an email late 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. Advocates on both sides have published incendiary newspaper ads in recent days, including one attacking Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser.
“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Mr. Netanyahu told the estimated 16,000 people gathered here. “I have great respect for both.”
The president expressed grievance about the speaking invitation, which the White House has interpreted as a way of bashing Mr. Obama and undercutting the Iran talks. In the Reuters interview, Mr. Obama said it would be as if Democrats in Congress invited the French president to speak after opposing George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. “I guarantee you that some of the same commentators who are cheerleading now would have suggested that it was the wrong thing to do,” he said.
He added: “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. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”
But the president and his team also seemed intent on tamping down the intensity of the dispute. Secretary of State John Kerry, in Geneva for more talks with Iran, made a point of defending Israel before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday. And Mr. Obama sent Ms. Rice and Samantha Power, his ambassador to the United Nations, to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington.
But Mr. Netanyahu said he would not remain silent over what he saw as the perils of a negotiated agreement with Iran that does not adequately cripple its nuclear program. Displaying a map showing Iranian ties to terrorism on multiple continents, Mr. Netanyahu said Tehran posed an existential threat to Israel.
“This is not a personal issue,” Mr. Obama said. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the U.S. has a process of making policy.” Even though Ms. Rice said last week that the issue could be “destructive” to bipartisan support of Israel, Mr. Obama said Monday that it was a distraction and would not be “permanently destructive.”
“This is what Iran is doing now without nuclear weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Imagine what Iran would do with nuclear weapons.”
Mr. Netanyahu, appearing before an estimated 16,000 supporters of Israel at the Aipac conference, characterized the disagreement over Iran as a family fight that would ultimately be overcome, and he expressed gratitude to Mr. Obama for his support of Israel over the years.
Responding to critics of his decision to come to Washington to address Congress shortly before Israeli elections, Mr. Netanyahu said he had no choice because of a late-March deadline for American-led talks with Iran.
“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Mr. Netanyahu told the crowd, which greeted him with standing ovations. “I have great respect for both.”
“I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” he said. “For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.” He added: “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 voice.”
He said he was sorry if anyone interpreted his visit as a political shot at Mr. Obama. “The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue,” he said, “and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”
Mr. Netanyahu’s address came shortly after a top adviser to Mr. Obama reassured the same audience that the United States would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, even as she warned that Israeli-American ties should not be politicized.
But 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,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.”
Appearing at a fraught moment in the relationship between the two allies, Samantha Power, the president’s ambassador to the United Nations, rebutted criticism from Mr. Netanyahu even before he delivered it Monday.
Some supporters said they hoped Mr. Netanyahu’s measured language might defuse some of the anger of recent weeks. “I think he did well and lowered the temperature,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who had called on Mr. Netanyahu to cancel the speech because of the fallout. “He could have pepped them up. He did not. It was an important message.”
“The United States of America will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Power told the audience. “Period.”
Opponents of Mr. Netanyahu said he had done lasting harm. “I’m here to do damage control,” said Erel Margalit, a Labor member of Parliament who attended the Aipac conference. “I’m here to say we, too, are very concerned about Iran becoming a threshold nuclear state, but we’re interested in getting the discussions back to where they were.”
Whatever the tensions between the leaders of the two countries, Ms. Power reminded the audience that the United States under Mr. Obama had invested more than $20 billion in Israel’s security and asserted that no one should doubt his commitment amid negotiations with Tehran.
Republicans maintained that it was Mr. Obama who had done the damage by making a fuss over a speech rather than paying attention to the substance of Mr. Netanyahu’s message. “The address is an opportunity for you to hear from the leader one of our closest allies about the grave threats we face from radical Islam and Iran,” Mr. Boehner’s office said in an email.
“Talks, no talks, agreement, no agreement, the United States will take whatever steps are necessary to protect our national security and that of our closest allies,” she told Israel supporters gathered in the cavernous hall of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
The tension of the moment was reflected at the Aipac conference before Ms. Power’s speech when the audience was advised to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Ms. Power and Ms. Rice both used their speeches to reaffirm Mr. Obama’s support for Israel and his determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“We believe diplomacy is the preferred route to secure our shared aim. But if diplomacy fails, we know the stakes of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as everyone here. We will not let it happen. There will never be a sunset on America’s commitment to Israel’s security. Never.”
But Ms. Rice encountered skepticism when she laid out the argument for a possible deal, with the audience applauding the goal of barring Iran from nuclear enrichment altogether even as she called that unrealistic. “Sound bites won’t stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Rice said. “Strong diplomacy backed by pressure can.”
But in a sharp if veiled jab at Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Power said, “this partnership should never be politicized, and it cannot and will not be tarnished or broken.” Debating the merits of a deal with Iran is legitimate, she added. “Politicizing that process is not,” she said. “The stakes are too high for that.”
Ms. Power was dispatched to deal with the fallout from the dispute over Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington shortly before Israeli elections to address a joint meeting of Congress. Mr. Obama addressed the issue directly in the Reuters interview, and his national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, was to address the conference on Monday evening.
The tension of the moment was reflected a few minutes before Ms. Power’s appearance when the audience was reminded to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Michael Kassen, the chairman of the Aipac board, made a point of praising Ms. Power in his introduction by noting her efforts to counter United Nations resolutions opposed by Israel.
The audience responded to her politely and rose in applause to some of her statements, including when she said the Israeli-American relationship transcended politics. “That is a very important statement you all have made,” Ms. Power said when she saw the audience rise.
The series of public comments will be as close as the American president and the Israeli prime minister come to a real-time debate over how to address the nuclear threat from Iran, and they are likely to highlight the deep rift between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu on the issue.
Those divisions have become more personal in recent weeks after Mr. Netanyahu worked with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, to arrange for the prime minister’s speech at a joint session of Congress, without first informing the White House.
Mr. Obama quickly said he would not meet with Mr. Netanyahu, to avoid the appearance of influencing Israeli elections in two weeks. Ms. Rice said last week that the prime minister’s visit had been “destructive” to the American-Israel relationship because it injected politics.
Mr. Boehner said on Sunday that he had never seen demand for tickets as high as they are for Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance, and he criticized Mr. Obama’s team for its reaction to the planned speech.
“What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say,” Mr. Boehner said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It has been, frankly, remarkable to me the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister, attacked me for wanting to hear from one of our closest allies.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Switzerland on Monday negotiating with Iran, sought to portray the United States as a strong supporter of Israel’s security.
The United States “will oppose any effort by any group or participant in the U.N. system to arbitrarily and regularly delegitimize or isolate Israel,” Mr. Kerry said during an appearance before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
But the focus Monday and Tuesday, in an unusual series of virtually dueling speeches and the interview, is more likely to be on differences between the two nations.
“What you’re going to see is a very, very deep disagreement over policy by an American government led by President Obama and an Israeli government for now led by Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of the Democratic-aligned and pro-Israel group J Street. He said that divide was “only going to get worse if an agreement is struck with Iran, and then you’re in a very serious clash between the two countries.”
