Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren says President Obama's upcoming trip to Israel sends a message just as the Middle East is reaching a “boiling point.”
“It's coming right as the boiling point is around the Middle East," Oren said, suggesting that the trip would serve as both an assurance to the people of Israel and a reminder to the broader Middle East that the bond between Israel and the United States is "unbreakable."
Oren noted that presidential visits to Israel not as frequent as many would expect given the two countries’ unique relationship. "Keep in mind that George Bush before him only came in the last six months of his second term. President Reagan never came at all," he said.
The status of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks has been a major focus in the lead-up to the trip. It was reported last week that President Obama told American Jewish leaders that he would not try to re-open peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians while on his trip. However, he suggested he hoped to do so within six months to a year.
"We wish it would take a lot less than a year,” Oren said. “We want to restart the negotiations not tomorrow, but today."
He added that Israel is open to direct talks with the Palestinians without preconditions, they just need to get the other side back to the negotiation table.
Watch David's entire interview with Michael Oren above to hear more from the Ambassador about the details of President Obama's first trip to Israel as Commander-in-Chief, which historic landmarks he will visit, and the broader Middle East landscape.
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As a signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty, Iran accepts continuing IAEA inspection and has an internationally recognized right to develop and implement nuclear technology. Having rejected both IAEA inspection and the NPT, Israel has no such right. Yet the Jewish State has hundreds of nukes and openly threatens Iran, actually campaigns for war against Iran. Israel, not Iran, is the warmonger. Resolution lies with lifting all sanctions and compensating Iran for damages from the $$$ billions we will no longer be giving the Jewish state. American foreign policy must again serve American interests, not the Jewish state's paranoid pursuit of invulnerability, territorial conquest and apartheid supremacist empire in and beyond the Mideast
Israel has never acknowledged the presence or absence of nuclear weapons so to state Israel has hundreds is absurd. If Israel has such an arsenal, it has shown great restraint having survived many wars since 1948 against many Arab nations at once and never using or threatening to use an alleged arsenal. Iran on the other hand has been an acknowledged terrorist state, has spread weapons and fighters throughout the Middle East and has controlled Syria and Lebanon by financing Hamas and Hezbollah. However a nuclear Iran is a threat not only to Israel but to other Sunni states and they will also try to develop a nuclear arsenal. There is no such fear that Israel wants to take over the Middle East but there is fear that Sunni Arabs will be prey to Shiah Arabs.
You may wish to begin by asking Wikipedia about its Sampson Option.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Samson_Option:_Israel%27s_Nuclear_Arsenal_and_American_Foreign_Policy