US, Israel agree to disagree on Iran - Firstpost

Reuters

Washington: President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended two days of public posturing on Iran right where they began. Obama wants Israel to refrain from attacking Iran now, and Netanyahu pointedly refused to make that promise.

Obama never made a direct, public appeal to Israel's visiting leader, but his message was clear. "We do believe that there is still a window that allows for a diplomatic resolution to this issue," Obama said Monday, before a two-hour meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office.

Netanyahu thanked Obama for acknowledging that Israel will make its own choices.

Later, the hawkish Israeli leader answered some of the US arguments for waiting. Iran is already a menace, and would be a worse one with nuclear weapons, Netanyahu told a friendly crowd of American Jewish supporters of Israel. And if you think oil prices are high because of the threat of a conflict with Iran, try buying gasoline once oil-rich Iran gets the added confidence of being able to bully the world with a bomb, Netanyahu said.

"There has been a lot of talk about the cost of stopping Iran," Netanyahu told the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "It is time to talk about the cost of not stopping Iran."

The Obama administration argues that it is premature to talk about attacking Iranian nuclear facilities until it has evidence that Iran has decided to develop a nuclear weapon; Israeli officials say that's a risky game and many prefer to launch a pre-emptive strike that would cripple Iran's ability to get to that point.

Thanks, but no thanks. We'll figure this out ourselves. Reuters

Republicans have tried to cast Obama as a fair-weather friend to Israel and as weak on Iran.

On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were all addressing AIPAC, the same pro-Israel conference that Netanyahu addressed Monday night.

Israeli leaders say they have not decided whether to attack Iran on their own, but say time is short to make such a strike effective.

US officials say they do not know what Israel will do either, and they continue to argue that a unilateral Israeli strike could actually make Israel less safe. Although US officials said several hours of closed door White House meetings produced greater understanding, the bottom line remained a difference of opinion over whether or when to launch a strike.

Israel sees Iran as its mortal enemy that threatens the very existence of the Jewish state. Although there is close intelligence cooperation between the nations, Israel largely rejects the US assessment that Tehran has not decided whether to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies its fast-moving nuclear development program is aimed at making nuclear weapons.

The two leaders talked about their unity with one another, but in their one brief public joint appearance Monday they were largely talking past one another. They acknowledged that the question of Iran looms over what both described as a close alliance.

Obama knew he would have a tough sell. Israel is impatient with the slow progress of sanctions and diplomacy, and the two nations have differing assessments of when the Iranian threat becomes unmanageable by anything other than military means.

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