Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Obama Not Bringing New Peace Plan to Israel

President Obama’s visit to Israel will focus on Syria and Iran, and he will not initiate new peace moves, the White House said.

“This is a trip the president looks forward to making that is timed in part because we have here obviously a second term for the president, a new administration and a new government in Israel, and that’s an opportune time for a visit like this that is not focused on specific Middle East peace process proposals,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at Wednesday’s briefing.

“We expect that Iran and Syria will be topics of conversation, but I’m sure a variety of issues will be discussed, as they always are, when the president meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders. And that is certainly the case when he meets with Palestinian Authority officials.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last September said Iran could reach the point of no return with its suspected nuclear weapons program by the spring. Israel is also concerned that the embattled Assad regime in Syria could unleash its chemical weapons against rebels or transfer them to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, and also that the chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists among the rebel groups.

Carney announced Tuesday that Obama would be making his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank sometime in the spring. He also will visit Jordan.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.