President Obama will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today at the White House. The Mideast peace process will be on the agenda, though as this report points out, the two leaders bring two very different agendas to the table:
Israel’s new conservative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, comes to the White House Monday set on convincing President Obama that dealing with Iran must come before efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For his part, Mr. Obama wants the Israeli leader to see how progress on the Palestinian front can take the wind out of Tehran’s sails and set Israel’s neighborhood on a more stable course. For both leaders, it’s going to be a tough sell.
One of the more interesting linkages that has been raised by U.S. officials is a public acknowledgment of the Israeli nuclear arsenal as part of nonproliferation efforts and perhaps part of an emerging grand bargain with Iran and other regional powers. George Perkovich and Avner Cohen, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, explain why Israel is not willing to tolerate a U.S. deal with Iran that would be linked to Israel’s own nuclear deterrent. They are looking for Obama to agree today to protect Israel from pressure to put any constraints on its strategic deterrent program.
