Report: Obama to Link Iran, Peace Process

Early in his first term Obama tried to similarly link Israeli peace efforts and U.S. action on Iran’s nuclear program.
By: Jewish Press News Briefs

U.S. President Barak Obama intends on offering Israel more U.S. pressure on Iran in exchange for greater Israeli overtures to the Palestinians, the British publication, The Sunday Times, reported today.

Early in his first term Obama tried to similarly link Israeli peace efforts and U.S. action on Iran’s nuclear program. In testimony to Congress in April 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that, “For Israel to get the kind of support its looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can’t stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and peace efforts. They go hand in hand.”

Clinton’s statement was part of an intense push by the Obama administration, which began shortly after Obama’s inauguration, to force newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse Palestinian statehood and make concessions to the Palestinians. In June 2009, Netanyahu endorsed the two-state solution for the first time in a major policy address at Bar Ilan University.

Obama reportedly intends to visit Israel as well as Jordan this coming March. It would be his first visit to Israel since he was first elected President.

Typically, such a presidential visit would be used to push for progress on a major issue, such as reaching a peace agreement, though almost all reports about the trip predicted that Obama would not be using the visit for such a purpose.

February 10, 2013 | 7 Comments »

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  1. You isolate mad dogs. U do not compromise with them. IL must remain skeptical of any dealing with fanatics. They need to be isolated or destroy.

  2. I am a Jewish nationalist expansionist, and I openly admit that I want Israel to expand its natural borders at the expense of Arabs of the Middle East and the various Islamic terror gangs, all of whom have fomented war against the Jewish nation and Jewish state for some 80-90 years. Do I want the Jewish nation to have more living space? You bet your asses I do. You want to compare that with Imperial Germany’s and Nazi Germany’s quests for weltmacht and lebensraum? Go ahead. I couldn’t care less.

    Except that my way, Israel moves in on them, and crowds out the enemy populations. The Germans, on the other hand, and especially the Hitlerites, enslaved and murdered multi-millions of civilians residing in the states they conquered.

    Only liberals — and especially liberal Jews — torture themselves with fear of what others may think of them, their goals, and their tactics. Jew I always have been and always shall be. Liberal I never have been and never shall be.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI

  3. @ Sam Goldblatt: But Hagel is not yet confirmed and there’s speculation he will withdraw his name from consideration and Obama’s approval is at 46%, down from the 50s–both good signs.

    But I agree that Israel needs more living space!

  4. New U.S. Secretary of Defense is on record as saying Israel’s expansionist aims are a copycat of Nazi Germany’s desire for lebrensaum (living space) and Hagel speaks for Obama. Hagel (i.e. Obama) wants Iran to go nuclear to force Israel back to the pre-1967 borders. So, Israel is in a precarious position. Obama is riding a crest of popularity now and he intends to use it to cut Israel down to size. He played the Hagel nomination like a maestso letting the Israel Lobby exhaust themselves spewing their bile before he even announced his pick.

  5. I think nothing substantial will be accomplished from this visit. I am glad of that. I equally mistrust both Obama and Netanyahu. There will be no peace in the Middle East, either real or so-called. And I am glad of that as well. Because Israel must expand its living space and peace can only serve to cripple Israel and the future need of the Jewish nation.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI