President Biden and Prime Minister Neftali Bennett sat together for reporters last Friday, where both leaders traded sharply different views over Iran, The Associated Press reported.
“We're putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us,” Biden said during an Oval Office meeting. “But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options.”
“Iran is the world’s number one exporter of terror, instability, and human rights violations," Bennett said. "And as we sit here right now the Iranians are spinning their centrifuges in Natanz and Fordo. And we got to stop it, and we both agree.”
The new prime minister also said in the public meeting that he planned to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions in a private setting with Biden, the AP said.
Bennett's public comments about Iran come after Israelis warned their U.S. counterparts in July that Iran is making progress toward its goal to manufacture enriched uranium. Preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is a non-negotiable goal of Israel, where its famously capable intelligence services keep a close eye on Iran’s progress and have been tied to repeated assassinations of top nuclear scientists going back more than a decade.
Responding to last week's meeting, political analyst-author David Rubin says he is hopeful that Bennett convinced Biden, even behind the scenes, that negotiating with Iran is a bad idea and confronting the terrorist nation is a good idea.
Rubin says he is positive about the White House meeting because he feels Biden is not an enemy of Israel and is willing to cooperate.
“The problem is [Biden] is under pressure from the left wing of the Democratic Party, which has become the mainstream of the Democrat Party,” Rubin tells American Family News. “And I think that's a big problem because those parts of the party tend to be less pro-Israel than the Democrats used to be."
