Monday, March 22, 2010

PM Netnayahu's speech to AIPAC will be important, "powerful & significant"

(Jpost, Haaretz).Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has spent a number of hours over the last few days writing the speech he will deliver at the AIPAC annual conference in Washington, a speech sources in his office described on Sunday as “very important.”

Netanyahu is expected to discuss Iran and outline his approach and Israel’s commitment to the peace process during Monday’s speech.

The prime minister is also likely to touch on the commitments he gave to the US that seem to have gone a long way toward toning down the crisis that followed an Interior Ministry panel’s announcement, during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit earlier this month, of the construction of 1,600 housing units in the northeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.

Netanyahu, accompanied by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, was scheduled to leave for Washington late on Sunday night.

In a sign that the Obama administration was putting the crisis behind it, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell – who arrived on Sunday to work out a framework for proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians – invited Netanyahu to meet with President Barack Obama on Tuesday evening in Washington.

“We want to reaffirm that the relationship between the United States and Israel is strong and enduring, that our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable and unbreakable. And that’s the way it’s going to remain,” Mitchell said before meeting with the prime minister in Jerusalem.

“Our shared goal – your goal, our goal – is the resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in an environment that can result in an agreement that ends the conflict and resolves all permanent-status issues.”

The PM's schedule includes Obama – who is able to meet him because he canceled a trip to Indonesia and Australia in order to be on hand for a vote on health care reform – Biden, Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He is also expected to meet with top congressional leaders.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Clinton on the sidelines of the AIPAC meeting, which she is also scheduled to address on Monday.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu will grant a series of interviews with the U.S. media, and that afternoon he will depart for Israel.

Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office declined to reveal the contents of the letter that Netanyahu wrote to Clinton after their telephone conversations on Thursday night, saying it was within the realm of confidential correspondence between governments.