Netanyahu: Israel will Work with US to “Advance Peace”

March 28, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Tuesday, 28 March 2017 | This weekend saw top diplomats, lawmakers, world leaders and those who stand with the Jewish state flock to Washington DC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference. The largest gathering of the pro-Israel movement, the 2017 conference kicked off on Sunday with former UK prime minister Tony Blair, US Vice President Mike Pence, Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, all lauding relations with Israel.

Yet one of the conference highlights came late yesterday afternoon when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the audience from Jerusalem via satellite link. The prime minister used the opportunity to thank both President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence for their dedication to Jerusalem. “The administration is showing its commitment to Israel by turning words into policy…” he explained. “You see it in the budget request submitted by President Trump. It leaves military aid to Israel fully funded… We appreciate that.”

Netanyahu then continued to highlight one of his own commitments: partnering with the American leaders in a combined effort to ensure a peaceful Middle East. “Israel is committed to working with President Trump to advance peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors,” he told the conference. “I believe that the common dangers faced by Israel and many of our Arab neighbors now offer a rare opportunity to build bridges towards a better future—a future more prosperous, more secure and more peaceful. And to achieve that, Israel will stand ever vigilant, never compromising on our security, always ready to defend ourselves.”

Addressing the Israel-Palestinian issue, Netanyahu reiterated the Jewish state’s desire for peace. “Israel’s hand and my hand are extended to all our neighbors in peace,” he said. “We teach peace to our children, and it is time the Palestinian Authority [PA] does the same. It must stop teaching hatred to its children. It must stop paying terrorists. It must stop denying our legitimacy and our history. It must, above all, once and for all, recognize the Jewish state.”

Confronting the threat of radical Islam—in the Middle East and around the world—was also on Netanyahu’s agenda. “We will not let them drag humanity away from the promise of a bright future to the misery of a dark past,” he vowed. Jerusalem and Washington, he said, would “stand together, shoulder to shoulder, to ensure that light triumphs over darkness and hope triumphs over despair.”

According to Netanyahu, this entails “confronting Iran’s aggression in the region and its terrorism around the world” and “preventing Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons. That is our policy; it will always be our policy.”

Netanyahu also used the opportunity to extend a word of welcome to the new American ambassador to Israel David Friedman. “I look forward to welcoming you to Israel with open arms, especially in Jerusalem. I have said it before and I will say it again; Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.”

Various other speakers also touched on the blossoming relations between Jerusalem and Washington. Dermer, Israel’s top diplomat in the US capital said during his address on Sunday that “for the first time in many years, perhaps even in many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments.”

For his part, Pence touched on the campaign promise Trump made of relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital. “After decades of simply talking about it, the president of the United States is giving serious consideration to moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Posted on March 28, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 28 March 2017)

Photo Credit: PMO webcast/ mfa.gov.il