President Shimon Peres held a meeting today with the Chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry. At the start of the meeting Senator Kerry told the President: “President Obama, I know, is very much looking forward to the meeting with the Prime Minister. Let me begin by congratulating you. I think everyone in congress, and in the administration, and in our country was pleased and excited by the steps that Israel has taken now [in regards to Gaza]… We are very sympathetic to your right to defend yourself… I personally visited Sderot, I know the problem of the rockets coming in, and how many have come in, this needs to change, and that’s what we are all working on.”

On the Iranian threat Senator Kerry remarked, “No one in the United States underestimates or mistakes the challenge that Iran is posing to the region. And as you know, we have just been dealing with the Iran Sanctions Act. We have put some tough sanctions into place… and in the Senate; we just went further last week… Iran has not left anybody very much choice but to move down the road that we are going.”

Senator Kerry added that “in the meantime, there are significant opportunities to advance the peace process I think, not just with Syria but in the efforts with the Palestinians… Senator Mitchell will be back here continuing to work on it… All of us are very hopeful that whichever chancel can work, [works]… I think time is the enemy for all of us here. We need to get this moving because the patience of people who have been waiting a long time on both sides, on all sides, has been tried. And needless to say, there are those who want to exploit every moment of delay in the worst ways. So I think it is incumbent on all of us to try and push this process as effectively as we can.”

President Peres welcomed the Senator warmly, “I do not believe that we can move [forward in the peace process] without the leadership of the United States. Relations between Israel and the United States are on good and stable ground. We are very grateful to the United States for their strong support of Israel.”

President Peres stated that he attaches “much importance to the meeting of the President and our Prime Minister,” which is planned for the 6th of July. He added that he expects a serious advance in the peace process: “It is important to raise the level of discussion between Israel and the Palestinians from proximity talks to direct talks.  It is also necessary to have a secret channel, because everything made public is no longer negotiations, but rather publication relations.”

During the private meeting between the two, President Peres repeated Israel’s position that security issues vis-à-vis the Palestinians remain the first priority in any future agreement. He elaborated on Israel’s security challenges, emphasizing two future dangers that threaten the entire Middle East—terrorism and missiles. Both, he stated, have changed the map of threats. To fight terror Israel must work together closely with its neighbors and to fight missiles, a shield of anti-missile systems must be spread across all the countries of the Middle East threatened by Iran.

The President added that the Middle East is currently witnessing a dangerous trend: Iran is arming Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas with long-range missiles. He then stated that a modern anti-missile system in the Middle East would both weaken the motivation of certain parties to collect missiles and halt Iran’s ambition to become a hegemonic power.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)