28-04-2024 07:14 PM Jerusalem Timing

Obama Satisfies Zionists with AIPAC Speech

Obama Satisfies Zionists with AIPAC Speech

After vowing his administration’s commitment to Israel’s security, US President Barack Obama is going into talks with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran

Obama speech at AIPACAfter vowing his administration’s commitment to Israel’s security, US President Barack Obama is going into talks with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran on Monday, with each publicly seeking to stake out some common ground.
  
While Obama in an address to the pro-Israel lobby on Sunday criticized "loose talk of war" he also gave a strong nod to Israel's refusal to contemplate a nuclear-armed Iran. "No Israeli government can tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of a regime that denies the Holocaust, threatens to wipe Israel off the map, and sponsors terrorist groups committed to Israel's destruction," he said, to applause from members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
  
Obama also acknowledged "Israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions about what is required to meet its security needs," drawing a swift vote of thanks from Netanyahu.
  
"I appreciated the fact that he said that Israel must be able to defend itself, by itself, against any threat," he told reporters in Ottawa on Sunday, during a weekend stopover in Canada on his way to Washington. "I very much appreciated the fact that President Obama reiterated his position that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that all options are on the table," Netanyahu added.
  
The Israeli premier arrived in the US capital late on Sunday evening and will meet Obama in the White House on Monday morning, addressing AIPAC himself later in the day.
  
Obama on Sunday sought to calm the fears of Israel and its supporters. "I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," he said. "As I've made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."

Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot wrote on Sunday that Obama doesn't want to wake up one morning and to hear that Israeli attack planes are hovering over Iran. "He... will explain that if the day arrives and there is no longer any choice, he will prefer to send the US army to fight against Iran over the options of allowing the Iranians to have nuclear weapons."