Netanyahu Tells Aipac He Intends No Disrespect to Obama

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Netanyahu’s Remarks to Aipac

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, saying that in his speech to Congress he would speak up against Iran and its “tentacles of terror.”

Video by AP on Publish Date March 2, 2015. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday opened his high-profile visit to the American capital by playing down any personal dispute with President Obama, but he said that he had a “moral obligation” to warn against the dangers of an American-brokered nuclear deal with Iran.

Previewing his hotly disputed address to Congress, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu said at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he was grateful to Mr. Obama and the United States for their support over the years and never meant to inject partisan politics into the relationship.

He characterized the disagreement over Iran to a fight within a family that would ultimately be overcome.

“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Mr. Netanyahu told the estimated 16,000 people gathered here. “I have great respect for both.”

He added: “The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue, and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”

Samantha Power, United States ambassador to the United Nations, addressed the Aipac gathering on Monday. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

But Mr. Netanyahu said he would not remain silent over what he saw as the perils of a negotiated agreement with Iran that does not adequately cripple its nuclear program. Displaying a map showing Iranian ties to terrorism on multiple continents, Mr. Netanyahu said Tehran posed an existential threat to Israel.

“This is what Iran is doing now without nuclear weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Imagine what Iran would do with nuclear weapons.”

Responding to critics of his decision to come to Washington to address Congress shortly before Israeli elections, Mr. Netanyahu said he had no choice because of a late-March deadline for American-led talks with Iran.

“I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” he said. “For 2,000 years my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.” He added: “Today, we are no longer silent. Today we have a voice. And tomorrow, as prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, I plan to use that voice.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s address came shortly after a top adviser to Mr. Obama reassured the same audience that the United States would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, even as she warned that Israeli-American ties should not be politicized.

Appearing at a fraught moment in the relationship between the two allies, Samantha Power, the president’s ambassador to the United Nations, rebutted criticism from Mr. Netanyahu even before he delivered it Monday.

“The United States of America will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Power told the audience. “Period.”

Whatever the tensions between the leaders of the two countries, Ms. Power reminded the audience that the United States under Mr. Obama has invested more than $20 billion in Israel’s security and asserted that no one should doubt his commitment amid negotiations with Tehran.

“Talks, no talks, agreement, no agreement, the United States will take whatever steps are necessary to protect our national security and that of our closest allies,” she told Israel supporters gathered in the cavernous hall of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

“We believe diplomacy is the preferred route to secure our shared aim. But if diplomacy fails, we know the stakes of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as everyone here. We will not let it happen. There will never be a sunset on America’s commitment to Israel’s security. Never.”

But in a sharp if veiled jab at Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Power said, “This partnership should never be politicized and it cannot and will not be tarnished or broken.” Debating the merits of a deal with Iran is legitimate, she added. “Politicizing that process is not,” she said. “The stakes are too high for that.”

Ms. Power was dispatched to deal with the fallout from the dispute over Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington shortly before Israeli elections to address a joint meeting of Congress. Mr. Obama will address the issue directly later in the day in an interview with Reuters, and his national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, will address the conference on Monday evening.

The tension of the moment was reflected a few minutes before Ms. Power’s appearance when the audience was reminded to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Michael Kassen, the chairman of the Aipac board, made a point of praising Ms. Power in his introduction by noting her efforts to counter United Nations resolutions opposed by Israel.

The audience responded to her politely and rose in applause to some of her statements, including when she said the Israeli-American relationship transcended politics. “That is a very important statement you all have made,” Ms. Power said when she saw the audience rise.

The series of public comments will be as close as the American president and the Israeli prime minister come to a real-time debate over how to address the nuclear threat from Iran, and they are likely to highlight the deep rift between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu on the issue.

Those divisions have become more personal in recent weeks after Mr. Netanyahu worked with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, to arrange for the prime minister’s speech at a joint session of Congress, without first informing the White House.

Mr. Obama quickly said he would not meet with Mr. Netanyahu, to avoid the appearance of influencing Israeli elections in two weeks. Ms. Rice said last week that the prime minister’s visit had been “destructive” to the American-Israel relationship because it injected politics.

Mr. Boehner said on Sunday that he had never seen demand for tickets as high as they are for Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance, and he criticized Mr. Obama’s team for its reaction to the planned speech.

“What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say,” Mr. Boehner said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It has been, frankly, remarkable to me the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister, attacked me for wanting to hear from one of our closest allies.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Switzerland on Monday negotiating with Iran, sought to portray the United States as a strong supporter of Israel’s security.

The United States “will oppose any effort by any group or participant in the U.N. system to arbitrarily and regularly delegitimize or isolate Israel,” Mr. Kerry said during an appearance before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

But the focus Monday and Tuesday, in an unusual series of virtually dueling speeches and the interview, is more likely to be on differences between the two nations.

“What you’re going to see is a very, very deep disagreement over policy by an American government led by President Obama and an Israeli government for now led by Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of the Democratic-aligned and pro-Israel group J Street. He said that divide was “only going to get worse if an agreement is struck with Iran, and then you’re in a very serious clash between the two countries.”