What Biden Told Netanyahu Behind Closed Doors: "This Is Starting To Get Dangerous For Us"

[Purveyor]

Publicly, Vice President Joe Biden tried to keep up a positive tone in his good will visit to Israel this week. But privately, the Israeli press reports, he had sharper words for Israeli decisions Biden said jeopardize the peace process and U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq, fight insurgents and stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan, and strengthen an international and regional alliance to pressure Iran.

The Israeli press has been extremely critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government's behavior during Biden's visit. See these excerpts from a piece by Shimon Shiffer in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth today, headline: "Biden: You’re Jeopardizing Regional Peace":

Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel as a friend. As a matter of fact, he is considered to be the greatest friend of Israel ever to have been a member of the U.S. Senate. Legislation that he promoted over the years ensured the Israelis’ security and welfare. It is that great friend of ours who now feels betrayed.

While standing in front of the cameras, the U.S. vice president made an effort to smile at Binyamin Netanyahu even after having learned on Tuesday that the Interior Ministry had approved plans to build 1,600 housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo. But in closed conversations, Joe Biden took an entirely different tone. ...

People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”

MORE...

POLITICO: http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0310/What_Biden_told_Netanyahu_behind_closed_doors_This_is_starting_to_get_dangerous_for_us.html?showall

[napi21]

1. I'm glad Biden was tough with them! I'm for a 2 state solution over there, and wether

it's Netanyahu ir others, the Israelis sure are fighting against any kind of a solution at all! It appears to me that Israel thinks they can get away with anything and still have US support and it's about time somebody set them straight! THEY have a lot of responsibility, and it's about time that somebody told them that they are not ALWAYS right!

[Jefferson23]

2. AJC Hails Biden's Tel Aviv Address

NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee hailed Vice President Joseph Biden's milestone speech on Middle East policy at Tel Aviv University today. Biden is the most senior Obama Administration official to visit Israel.

"Vice President Biden delivered a powerful, moving, and timely affirmation that the State of Israel has no better friend than the United States of America," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "President Obama's assignment of the Vice President to convey this message was a reflection of the Vice President's commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship throughout his career in public service - and of the importance of highlighting America's alliance with Israel."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100311/pl_usnw/DC69096_1


Supportive, frank Biden reaches out to Israelis

Tel Aviv - From an Israeli point of view, Joe Biden's speech in Tel Aviv was almost like the sun breaking through an overcast sky after a thunderstorm. The US vice president used warm, but clear words to his hosts.

"Quite frankly folks, only a friend can deliver the hardest truth," he said, after reiterating his strong condemnation of an Israeli plan to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, which he said "undermines the trust required for negotiations."

Some in Israel had feared the speech would be more frosty than originally planned because of the Israeli construction announcement, which embarrassingly coincided with Biden's visit, because of what Israel called a "bureaucratic mishap".

But Biden evidently updated Thursday's speech, after Netanyahu apologized to him in the morning, and also issued a statement "expressing his regret over the unfortunate timing" and explaining that the beginning of actual construction in East Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood would "likely take several years."

He said he "appreciated" the Israeli leader's clarification and called it "significant, because it gives negotiations time to resolve this and other issues."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313609,supportive-frank-biden-reaches-out-to-israelis--feature.html

[Mosby]

3. your OP violates the IP forum rules

Which disallowes blogs as a souce for an OP. Personally I would like to see the rule changed.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Only some blogs,

like those from widely published (NYT, Newsweek, and so on) progressives who are critical of the RW, are prohibited. One of the unwritten rules.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Me too, because the NYT is hardly going to report this.

[tabatha]

4. Iran and Israel

both behave like irresponsible kids.