Prime Minister Netanyahu met last night (6/3/18) in Washington with leading members of the United States Congress and thanked them for their strong support for Israel. In his meetings on Capitol Hill, Netanyahu focused on the dangers posed by Iran, and reiterated Jerusalem’s determination to prevent an Iranian military entrenchment in Syria. With regard to the nuclear agreement with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the American lawmakers to enact the necessary amendments that will provide a genuine fix to the deal’s dangerous flaws, or else move toward cancelling the deal, all together.
Netanyahu’s warning of Iran’s pursuit of aggressive policies across the Middle East topped his agenda in Washington, amid growing concerns in Jerusalem of Tehran’s aspiration to establish a front-line military foothold in Israel’s northern neighbor, Syria. In an address earlier in the evening to the annual summit of the powerful American pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that warning, underlining Iran’s ongoing activities of what the Israeli leader termed, “building an aggressive empire.” “Iran is building an aggressive empire. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, more to come. Now Iran is seeking to build permanent military bases in Syria, seeking to create a land bridge from Tartus, from Tehran to Tartus on the Mediterranean. And in addition to moving its army, its air force, its navy to Syria to be able to attack Israel from closer hand, it’s also seeking to develop to build precision guided missile factories in Syria in Lebanon against Israel. I will not let that happen. We will not let that happen. We must stop Iran. We will stop Iran,” Netanyahu said.
The leader of the Jewish state also made an analogy to the biblical story of Esther, in which the Persian biblical figure Haman sought to exterminate the Jewish people. Netanyahu emphasized that as the Persians failed to exterminate the Jewish people in biblical times, Iran’s aspiration to annihilate the Jewish state will fail, too. “Last week we read in The Book of Esther about an earlier Persian attempt to exterminate our people. They failed then. They will fail now. We will never let Iran develop nuclear weapons — not now, not in 10 years, not ever. President Trump has made it clear that his administration will not accept Iran’s aggression in the region. He has made clear that he too will never accept a nuclear armed Iran. That is the right policy. I salute President Trump on this,” Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also took the opportunity to reassert Israel’s commitment to achieving peace with all of its neighbors, including the Palestinians. He stressed, however, that for peace to be achieved, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “must embrace peace” himself, and “stop supporting terror.” “Israel remains committed to achieving peace with all our neighbors including the Palestinians. President Trump has made it clear that he is committed to peace. I have made it clear that I’m committed to peace. We appreciate the efforts of President Trump’s superb team — Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador David Friedman. Thank you all. Thank you all for your hard work for peace. But to get peace, to get peace, President Abbas has to embrace peace and to stop supporting terror,” Netanyahu said.
Palestinian officials vehemently rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address, claiming the Israeli leader continues with “a charade of deceptive words on peace,” while in contrast, “Netanyahu pursues counterproductive measures on the ground that clearly portrays his true intensions to evade peace.”