Q. Mr. President, the Israeli Prime Minister and the Israeli administration have said on many occasions--on some occasions that only if the Iranian threat will be solved, they can achieve real progress on the Palestinian threat. Do you agree with that kind of linkage?
And to the Israeli Prime Minister, you were speaking about the political track. Are you willing to get into final status issues, negotiations like borders, like Jerusalem, in the near future, based on the two-states solution? And do you still hold this opinion about the linkage between the Iranian threat and your ability to achieve any progress on the Palestinian threat?
President Obama. Well, let me say this. There's no doubt that it is difficult for any Israeli Government to negotiate in a situation in which they feel under immediate threat. That's not conducive to negotiations. And as I've said before, I recognize Israel's legitimate concerns about the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon when they have a President who has in the past said that Israel should not exist. That would give any leader of any country pause.
Having said that, if there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, I personally believe it actually runs the other way. To the extent that we can make peace with the Palestinians--between the Palestinians and the Israelis, then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with a potential Iranian threat.
Having said that, I think that dealing with Iran's potential nuclear capacity is something that we should be doing even if there already was peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And I think that pursuing Israeli-Palestinian peace is something that is in Israel's security interests and the United States national security interests, even if Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon. They're both important.
And we have to move aggressively on both fronts. And I think that based on my conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he agrees with me that they're both important. That's not to say that he's not making a calculation, as he should, about what are some of the most immediate threats to Israeli's security, and I understand that.
But, look, imagine how much less mischief a Hizballah or a Hamas could do if in fact we had moved a Palestinian-Israeli track in a direction that gave the Palestinian people hope. And if Hizballah and Hamas is weakened, imagine how that impacts Iran's ability to make mischief and vice versa. I mean, so obviously, these things are related, but they are important separately. And I'm confident that the United States, working with Israel, can make progress on both fronts.
Prime Minister Netanyahu. Thank you. We've had extraordinarily friendly and constructive talks here today, and I'm very grateful to you, Mr. President, for that. We want to move peace forward, and we want to ward off the great threats.
There isn't a policy linkage, and that's what I hear the President saying, and that's what I'm saying too. And I've always said, there's not a policy linkage between pursuing simultaneously peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world and trying to deal with removing the threat of a nuclear Iran.
There are causal links. The President talked about one of them. It would help, obviously, unite a broad front against Iran if we had peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And conversely, if Iran went nuclear, it would threaten the progress towards peace and destabilize the entire area and threaten existing peace agreements.
So it's very clear to us. I think we actually--we don't see closely on this; we see exactly eye to eye on this, that we want to move simultaneously and then parallel on two fronts: the front of peace and the front of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities.
On the front of peace, the important thing for me is to resume negotiations as rapidly as possible, and to--and my view is less one of terminology, but one of substance. And I ask myself, what do we end up with? If we end up with another Gaza--the President has described to you there's rockets falling out of Gaza--that is something we don't want to happen, because a terror base next to our cities that doesn't call--recognize Israel's existence, calls for our destruction, and asks for our destruction is not our view of peace.
If, however, the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, if they fight terror, if they educate their children for peace and to a better future, then I think we can come at a substantive solution that allows the two peoples to live side by side in security and peace and, I add, prosperity, because I'm a great believer in this.
So I think the terminology will take care of itself, if we have the substantive understanding. And I think we can move forward on this. I have great confidence in your leadership, Mr. President, and in your friendship to my country and in your championing of peace and security. And the answer is, both come together; peace and security are intertwined. They're inseparable.
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