AFTER MEETING privately for an hour and 45 minutes Monday, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a joint press conference that shone a light on significant differences between them. The leaders formulated those differences in the politest of terms, but there was no mistaking the points of friction.
Two key questions remain to be answered. One is whether Netanyahu is willing - or politically able - to align Israel with Obama's vision for a more peaceful and stable Mideast. The other is how resolute Obama will be in guiding Israelis, Palestinians, Iran, and the Arab states toward the peaceful resolution of several knotty, intertwined conflicts.
Netanyahu insists that progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace can come only after the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is removed. Obama was tactful but firm in arguing otherwise. After acknowledging "Israel's legitimate concerns about the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon," Obama stated a view diametrically opposed to Netanyahu's: "If there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," he said, "I personally believe it actually runs the other way." Obama explained that peace between Israel and the Palestinians "strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with a potential Iranian threat."
Obama could be proved wrong; a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians might not persuade Russia and China to help more in restraining Iranian nuclear ambitions. Still, Obama is right to argue that the path of simultaneous diplomatic efforts on the two tracks has not really been tried, and must be.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/05/21/obamas_show_of_steel/
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