Netanyahu Tells Pelosi a Nuclear Iran Is "A Great Danger"

WASHINGTON--A day after meeting with President Obama--and dining with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton--Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit Capitol Hill on Tuesday, calling a nuclear Iran "a great danger" to all of us.

Netanyahu had an 8 a.m. meeting with Jewish members of Congress, a 9 a.m. with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then a 10 a.m. with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and several other House members.

After that, he traveled to the Pentagon to see Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He was scheduled to swing back to the Hill to see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) before boarding a jet at Dulles Airport to fly back to Israel.

"We gather here today, a new president of the United States, a new prime minister of Israel, a new opportunity for hope, for a better future for the region, which is important to the world," said Pelosi, standing with Netanyahu.

"There have been previous agreements that talked about a two-state solution, but I emphasize the word solution. It must be a solution that provides for a democratic Jewish state of Israel living side by side with her Palestinian neighbors," she said.

Netanyahu has not endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state existing along with Israel.

And no one expected Netanyahu, making his first visit here as prime minister (his second stint), to yield any ground-rhetorically or otherwise.

Netanyahu instead focused on the Iranian threat to Israel and the region during his talks on the Hill-just as he underscored Israel's overwhelming concern about Iran in talks with Obama and Clinton.

I think anyone who would have expected any movement on the contentious issue of Israeli settlements on the West Bank to occur at this early stage of Obama's and Netanyahu's respective tenures was being unrealistic.

At the Pelosi-Boehner event, Netanyahu said, "We face opportunities and challenge. The challenge is the arming of Iran -- the potential arming of Iran with nuclear weapons capabilities. That is a great danger (to) all of us...to Israel specifically, to the modern Arab regimes, to America, especially, if this regime were to arm itself -- arm terrorists with nuclear weapons. The consequences could be unimaginable.

"At the same time, we want to seek the advancement of peace between us and the Palestinians. And as President Obama, I think wisely said, between us, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world, it's time that the Arab countries do their part to normalize relations with Israel and to support the peace process.

"We have to do this in tandem. That's going to be our policy. And I was very encouraged to learn that this is the American policy. We're going to try to do it together, because if we do it together, we'll get a lot further a lot faster," he said.

While much of the U.S. reporting on the Obama-Netanyahu meeting did not seem to pick a winner or loser, Herb Keinon, the veteran diplomatic writer for the Jerusalem Post, wrote that Netanyahu was concerned about "what he thought was a gross misrepresentation in Israel: that his talks with U.S. President Barack Obama had ended in failure."

As Keinon noted, Netanyahu claimed some understandings with the Obama administration. Obama has long been concerned about nuclear proliferation, so his siding with Netanyahu over limiting Iran's nuclear capability seemed a given. And Obama is calling on the Arab world to be more active in trying to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, which Netanyahu welcomed.

The Obama White House is moving ahead with a Middle East agenda and pushing "normalized" relations between Arab states and Israel.

Obama recently hosted King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House. Netanyahu will be followed by a visit from President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on May 26 (Israel and Egypt have a 30-year peace treaty) and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on May 28.

Obama next month will fly to Egypt and deliver a major speech directed at the Muslim world. Also in June, Obama travels to Germany, visiting Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp.

Netanyahu's meetings here offered only a few clues as to what will be Obama-era initiatives in brokering an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"When the dust settles," Keinon writes, "what will likely be remembered from Netanyahu's maiden trip to the U.S. in his second term as prime minister is that the talks led neither to a breakdown of relations with the U.S. nor a breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy."

Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the author of "The Much Too Promised Land," agreed that this first diplomatic round is just setting the stage.

"First, neither leader was looking for a fight," Miller wrote. "Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that he must manage Israel's most important relationship, and he'll dance on a dime to do it. And the president understands that investing in Netanyahu makes much more sense than confronting him."

WEDNESDAY MORINING UPDATE

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Wednesday's Yediot Ahronot, has the outlines of Obama initiatives and "will call on Arab countries to take trust-building measures in order to clear the air with Israel" when he talks to the Muslim and Arab world in three weeks from Cairo. The paper said Obama will call on Palestinians to give up the "right to return."

When you hear Obama, Pelosi or any figure talk about keeping Israel as a "Jewish state," that's code for not agreeing to any right of return in a peace agreement: Israelis believe that the Jewish birthrate could never keep up and Jews would end up in the minority in Israel.

Demography can determine destiny as much as any diplomatic pact or military victory.

From Yediot Ahronot, via the Jerusalem Post: "Obama is expected to present the initiative in an address to the Arab and Muslim world from Cairo in three weeks, and set out conditions for a demilitarized Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, within the next four years. Yediot reported that Obama's vision for an independent, democratic and contiguous Palestinian state would not have its own army and would be forbidden from making military agreements with other states, in order to provide for Israel's security.

"The matter of borders will be solved with territorial exchanges between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Old City of Jerusalem will be established as an international zone."