President Obama: Advancing Israel's Security and Supporting Peace

“Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations – if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.”

“America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable.  Our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring.  And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day . . . The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland.  Israel deserves recognition.  It also deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two-state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.”

President Barack Obama
September 21, 2011

The President has forcefully opposed unbalanced and biased actions against Israel in the Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and across the UN system.

• When an effort was made to insert the Security Council into matters that should be resolved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, we vetoed it.  When the UN General Assembly voted for a commemoration in September 2011 of the original 2001 Durban conference, we voted against it and announced we would not participate.  When the Goldstone Report was released, we stood up strongly for Israel’s right to defend itself. 

The President has stood with Israel in times of crisis.

• The President personally intervened to help avert catastrophe when a violent mob stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. Afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said of the President: “I requested his assistance at a decisive—I would even say fateful—moment.  He said he would do everything possible, and this is what he did. He activated all of the United States’ means and influence — which are certainly considerable.  I believe we owe him a special debt of gratitude.”

The President has made clear that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with Hamas, a terrorist group sworn to its destruction.

• In his speech in Cairo and elsewhere, the President has consistently demanded that Hamas accept Israel’s right to exist, reject violence, and adhere to all existing agreements before it can play a role in achieving Middle East peace.
   
• The President has spoken out forcefully to condemn Hamas attacks against Israelis.  He has made clear that “it is a sign neither of courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus.  That’s not how moral authority is claimed; that’s how it is surrendered.”  At the United Nations, he emphasized that “the slaughter of innocent Israelis is not resistance -- it’s injustice.”

The President has called on all sides, Arabs, Palestinians, and Israelis alike, to do their part to help achieve Middle East peace.

• In Cairo, the President said that Arab states must recognize that they too have responsibilities to move towards peace, including by fostering a culture of peace.  He said clearly that “threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong,” and that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant, and hateful.”
   
• In his May 19, 2011 speech, President Obama emphasized that a peace agreement must meet the needs of both sides, including by: ending the conflict and resolving all claims, achieving the goal of two states for two peoples with Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people, achieving secure and recognized borders for both sides, and devising robust security arrangements that will not leave Israel vulnerable.

The President has strengthened Israel’s security in tangible and concrete ways.

• Despite tough fiscal times, the President fought for and secured full funding for Israel in the FY 2011 appropriation bill, which includes $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing – the largest amount of funding for Israel in U.S. history. 
   
• The President then secured an additional $205 million to help produce an Israeli-developed short-range rocket defense system called Iron Dome, which has recently helped defend Israeli communities against rocket attacks by successfully striking rockets as they are fired at Israeli civilians. 
   
• Prime Minister Netanyahu told the AIPAC conference on May 23 that “Yesterday President Obama spoke about his ironclad commitment to Israel's security.  He rightly said that our security cooperation is unprecedented… And he has backed those words with deeds.”  
   
• The President has expanded U.S.-Israeli security and military cooperation on challenges ranging from counterterrorism to preventing arms smuggling to Gaza to missile defense.  In 2011, there were nearly 200 senior-level Department of Defense visitors to Israel, and Israeli officials visited the United States just as often. 
   
• The United States and Israel will conduct their largest ever joint military exercise, Austere Challenge 12, in the second half of 2012.  Israeli forces now benefit from regular joint exercises and training opportunities, access to advanced U.S. military hardware, emergency stockpiles, and favorable terms for the acquisition of equipment. 

The President has galvanized the international community to put more pressure on the Iranian regime than ever before.

• President Obama has generated more international pressure on the Iranian regime than ever before.

• President Obama has said that the United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.  He has backed up this commitment with tangible steps to increase pressure substantially on the Iranian regime and raise the costs of its defiance of the international community. 

• With President Obama’s leadership, the United States gained the support of Russia, China, and other nations to pass United Nations Security Council resolution 1929, creating the most comprehensive and biting international sanctions regime the Iranian government has ever faced.  This resolution imposes restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, ballistic missile program, conventional military exports to Iran, Iranian banks and financial transactions, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

• The Obama Administration also worked with allies such as the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Canada, and others to adopt additional national measures to increase pressure on the Iranian regime, including in the financial, banking, insurance, transportation, and energy sectors.  Iran is now virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system and we are working aggressively to isolate Iran yet further. 

• In addition to multilateral sanctions, President Obama worked with Congress to pass in 2010 the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act, which strengthens existing U.S. sanctions, and makes it harder for the Iranian government to buy refined petroleum and the goods it needs to modernize its oil and gas sector.  Already close to $60 billion in energy-related projects in Iran have been put on hold or discontinued. 

• More recently, the Administration worked with Congress to develop Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which makes sanctionable a host of transactions involving the Central Bank of Iran as of December 31, 2011.  The United States is now engaged with its partners to ensure the imposition of a phased, well-timed, and multilateral package of sanctions to restrict Iranian oil revenues and transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. 

• International companies are increasingly recognizing the risks of doing business with Iran and are abandoning existing business opportunities, declining to take advantage of new ones, and scaling back any existing relationships.  This trend has been replicated across a broad range of industries.  Examples of companies withdrawing from business with Iran include: Shell, Total, ENI, Statoil, Repsol, Lukoil, Kia, Toyota, Siemens, and foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms such as GE, Honeywell, and Caterpillar.