President Adjusts Stance on Netanyahu

President Clinton, who backed the losing candidate in Israel’s May election, assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that Washington will not unduly second-guess the new Israeli government’s stern approach to peace negotiations with its Arab neighbors.

With Netanyahu at his side, Clinton said: “There was an election in Israel. The Israeli people made a decision. Part of that decision was to take a different approach to the peace process from this point forward. . . . The prime minister has very strong views.”

The Clinton administration once considered those views--that Israel’s security takes precedence in relations with the Palestinians and other Arabs and that relinquishing the strategic Golan Heights is too high a price to pay for peace with Syria--obstacles to the U.S.-brokered peace process. The administration had strained the bonds of normal neutrality toward a friendly and democratic country by making clear its support for former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who lost narrowly to Netanyahu.

But in a White House meeting that marked the U.S.-educated Netanyahu’s first visit to the United States as prime minister, Clinton adjusted his diplomacy to fit the new Israeli government.

Using a central slogan of Netanyahu’s election campaign, Clinton said: “Peace and security must be indivisible.”

“Israel has changed governments but, as I told the prime minister, the historic relationship between the United States and Israel has not and will not change,” Clinton said. “The bonds that unite us are as strong as ever today. I am proud that our relationship is broader, deeper and more firmly rooted than at any time in Israel’s history.”

Netanyahu said the purpose of his visit was “to express Israel’s appreciation for American support and also to reaffirm that the relationship between our two countries transcends personalities and politics and parties.”

Clinton apparently believed that he had little choice but to make up with Netanyahu as soon as possible after the May 29 election. The votes of American Jews, many of whom are influenced by issues pertaining to Israel, are considered an indispensable part of Clinton’s reelection strategy.

When an Israeli journalist asked Clinton how he explained to Netanyahu the reasons for his support for Peres, Clinton replied: “I don’t think it needed that much explaining. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in years of dealing with Mr. Netanyahu, [it is that] he’s a very bright man.”

Clinton announced that a U.S.-Israel group established last spring to help Israel fight terrorism will meet for the first time this month.

He also said that before the end of this year, the United States will begin giving Israel satellite intelligence that could warn of incoming ballistic missiles within seconds of launch--something promised to Peres during a visit to Washington in April. A similar program was in place during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but it was shelved after Iraq’s defeat eliminated the immediate danger from that country’s Scud missiles.

In advance of Tuesday’s meeting, a group of 150 U.S. rabbis wrote to Clinton urging him to threaten to cut off economic aid to Israel if the Netanyahu government expands Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The same letter, organized by the Jewish Peace Lobby, stated that the United States should end assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it fails to fight vigorously against terrorism.

When Clinton was asked about the letter, he replied only that the Palestinian Authority seems to be making progress against terrorism. He ignored the letter’s call for pressure on Netanyahu to stop expanding settlements that Washington has long regarded as an obstacle to peace.

Netanyahu said the Jewish population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip increased by about 10% a year during the four years that the Labor Party governed Israel.

“No one is expecting us to do less than the Labor government,” said Netanyahu, who heads the Likud Party.

To counter criticism of Israel for not living up to the letter of its peace agreement with the Palestinians, Netanyahu recited a list of what he called Palestinian violations of the accord.

The prime minister also said his government is unwilling to accept the traditional land-for-peace formula in its negotiations with Syria.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton told Netanyahu that “our views on land for peace remain unchanged.” But the president did not mention those views in public.

McCurry said Clinton and Netanyahu met privately for 45 minutes, then were joined by aides for another hour, followed by an hourlong working lunch. McCurry said the entire meeting lasted “much longer than expected.”