Israel's Netanyahu speaks peace -- with US Democrats
WASHINGTON -- Israel should work with Palestinians to improve security and economic issues but leave thorny political decisions and the status of Jerusalem for another time, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.
“I don’t know if we can solve the political problem right now, and President Obama has his own doubts as well,” Netanyahu said a day after meeting with the U.S. president at the White House. “At the very least, we can work on security and prosperity. And then we can sit down and talk.”
“On the question of Jerusalem and specifically the Temple Mount, I think it’s insoluble. I just don’t see right now a solution,” Netanyahu said. “I think it has to remain under Israel’s control to prevent it from exploding.”
Netanyahu spoke at the liberal Center for American Progress, in an effort to smooth over hard feelings among Democrats and progressives over his aggressive lobbying during the past two years against the Iran nuclear agreement, Obama’s most significant foreign policy achievement. On Monday, Netanyahu was honored by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank whose analysts were critical of the deal with Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, poses for photographs with Democratic Senators on his left and Republican Senators on his right. Present from left, were Ben Cardin, D-Md., Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Mike Rounds, R-SD, Tom Cotton R-Ark., Richard Blumenthal D-Conn., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., at the U.S. Capitol Nov. 10, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/11/10/israel-netanyahu-speaks-peace-w-us-democrats/75551840/
