As a follow-up to the last post on U.S. Middle East peace efforts, I wanted to mention this week’s meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at which Secretary Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu will speak. I was especially curious to see how Secretary Clinton would describe U.S. efforts and the “crisis” in the U.S. – Israel relationship. According to this report in The New York Times, Clinton’s speech was well received and did not convey a sense of crisis:
After a week in which some worried that Israel and the United States were on the brink of a breakdown in relations, Mrs. Clinton’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was clearly designed to calm the waters. Despite predictions that she would be booed, the crowd of 7,000 at the Washington convention center interrupted her repeatedly with standing ovations. In an emphatic, spirited address that she could have delivered on the campaign trail, Mrs. Clinton said the United States would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, which Israel views as a threat to its existence, and she vowed to impose tough new sanctions against the Iranian government. “Our aim is not incremental sanctions, but sanctions that will bite,” she said. […] Mrs. Clinton praised Mr. Netanyahu for his endorsement of a two-state solution. She said the United States would not impose its own plan for a peace agreement on the Israelis or Palestinians, noting that the status of Jerusalem is a sensitive issue that would be hashed out at the bargaining table.
Secretary Clinton reaffirmed a strong U.S. relationship with Israel and said that America’s support for Israel was “rock solid, unwavering, enduring, and forever,” while also calling Israeli settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank an obstacle to peace efforts. It will be interesting to follow-up later this week and contrast this with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to the same group and see how he characterizes the U.S.-Israel relationship and what he has to say about the settlements issue. And if you are wondering why the settlements issue in general, and issue of Jerusalem in particular, are so intractable, see this commentary from Martin Indyk, who explains how these issues were dealt with during President Bill Clinton’s term as well as some hints at a way forward. Finally, the following CNN video provides more of Clinton’s comments at the AIPAC meeting:
