US official: Israel can't isolate Iranian problem
Two weeks before first meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu, US President Obama, senior American official stresses 'Obama views region as a whole, trying to isolate each problem doesn't reflect reality'
Israel is pushing to put the Iranian nuclear threat at the top of the region's priority list, but officials in Washington feel Jerusalem will meet a number of hurdles from the American administration, that has asserted that Israel must move forward in talks with the Palestinians and Syria as well.
"Trying to isolate each problem does not reflect reality," a senior American official speaking on condition of anonymity told the New York Times.
From the day they took office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have been trying to form a new Israeli foreign policy arguing that to rely purely on the formulas of trading land for peace and promising a Palestinian state fails to grasp what they views as the deeper issues: Muslim rejection of a Jewish state and the rising hegemonic appetite of Iran.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama in two weeks and will outline to the president Israel's concerns over Iran's nuclearization and its demand to have the threat removed.
According to the American official: "President Obama views the region as a whole, and trying to isolate each problem does not reflect reality...It will be a lot easier to build a coalition to deal with Iran if the peace process is moving forward.”
The official made it clear that the US sees a link between the Iranian and Palestinian problems.
Meanwhile, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)'s annual conference is being held in Washington this week. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told the forum on Sunday night that the ability to confront Iran depended on the ability to make progress on the Palestinian front.
Solving the conflict will make it possible to advance the handling of the main threat posed by Iran, he said.
Earlier, Israel's appointed ambassador to the US, Dr. Michael Oren, said he didn't believe Israel would allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon and threaten its population.
Oren said that Israel was trying with all its might to retrieve one kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, and that such a country would not remain idle in the face of a threat on its 7.4 million citizens.
