Netanyahu: If Israel doesn't take out Iranian threat, no one will  | Haaretz - Staff | [cached]

If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this Monday.

"Israel is not like other countries," Netanyahu told his Likud faction in a meeting which came one week after his meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. "We are faced with security challenges that no other country faces, and our need to provide a response to these is critical, and we are answering the call."

"These are not regular times. The danger is hurtling toward us? The real danger in underestimating the threat," Netanyahu said, addressing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. "My job is first and foremost to ensure the future of the state of Israel ... the leadership's job is to eliminate the danger. Who will eliminate it? It is us or no one."

• Security Breach Inside Netanyahu's Bunker on Iran Strike | by Oui @BooMan - 9 Sept. 2012 | [Obama White House leak]

  Netanyahu adjourns Iran security meeting over leak

"Our relationship with the United States is of great importance," Netanyahu said. "Our situation today is different from our situation between 1996 and 1999. Our priorities must be inline with national security needs and we must unite in order to deflect the danger. The Defense Minister and I are working in coordination; he is not conducting an independent policy."

Netanyahu added that he reached understandings Obama, among them that the most important goal for both countries is preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear military capability. Netanyahu told Likud members that Israel received a number of key pieces of defense aid from the Americans.

Addressing the differing Israeli and American approaches to the issue of West Bank settlements, Netanyahu said the issue resembled a disagreement between good friends.

"The Defense Minister and I are working in coordination; he is not conducting an independent policy," he said. "During the elections I said that we are law-abiding and will deal with deal with the illegal outposts."

Israel's government and the American administration have expressed divergent views on how they perceive some of the most sensitive issues of the Middle East conflict.

The State Department said Sunday that the future status of Jerusalem would be determined through peace negotiations, despite Netanyahu's declaration last week that the capital would "never again be partitioned and divided."

"Jerusalem is a final status issue. Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to resolve its status during negotiations. We will support their efforts to reach agreements on all final status issues," a State Department spokesman said when asked to respond to Netanyahu's proclamation that Jerusalem would always remain under Israeli sovereignty.

At a state ceremony marking the annual Jerusalem Day, Netanyahu said" "United Jerusalem is Israel's capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided."

A U.S. Congressional delegation in Jerusalem said that it was "sceptical" that Netanyahu's government would be able to move the peace process with the Palestinians ahead.

Have a peaceful cultural summer

Eight years of failures in the Middle East under the Obama-Biden [I'm a Zionist] administration witnessed by HRC and John Kerry ... such a great disappointment after his protest of the Vietnam War before U.S. Congress. Cost him the 2004 Presidential Election ... warmongers triumphed in America.

Some truths are evergreens ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers the "lifting" of the Iranian nuclear threat his life's mission. Before coming to power, he had mentioned that such an operation might cost thousands of lives, but the price was justified in view of the threat's severity.

[...]

Recently, Jacques Chirac confirmed that George Bush, in telephone calls leading up the Iraq war, attempted to persuade France to join the coalition of the willing by invoking the Biblical war of Gog and Magog.  While Americans generally knew their president had a evangelical zeal in both his religious beliefs and political stances, even this revelation takes our breath away.  So saith George, the Lord's avenger ...

Comment to article 16 years ago - 2009!!

BIBI NEEDS TO TAKE A STANCE BASED ON PEACE. THAT HE WILL DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE DROPPING BOMBS. TO ME ITS THAT SIMPLY. ASK TO HAVE TALKS WITH IRAN. OPEN COMMUNICATION WITH IRAN AFTER THE IRANIAN ELECTION. WORK FOR SOLUTION WITH THE PALESTINIANS. THESE ARE ACTIONS OF A LEADER OF THE PEOPLE.

Have a peaceful cultural summer