Israel PM Olmert Travels to Washington, Discuss Iran
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Joel Leyden Jerusalem ---November 11..... Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will arrive in Washington, D.C. tomorrow in preparation for meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush and Congressional leaders to discuss the Iran nuclear threat and other key issues facing the Middle East and the rest of the world. The Israel prime minister's official meetings on Monday, November 13 will also provide an opportunity to review several pressing issues following Israel's defensive war this past summer against Iran - backed Hezbollah terrorism, as well as the need to stabilize the situation with Palestine. At 4 p.m. Monday, the Israel Prime Minister's foreign media advisor, Miri Eisin, will brief reporters and answer questions about the high-level sessions at Washington's National Press Club. The event is sponsored by the National Press Club's Newsmaker Committee. Israel PM Olmert will also travel to Los Angeles, where he will address the United Jewish Communities' 75th annual General Assembly on November 14. According to a White House statement, "The President looks forward to discussing with the Israel Prime Minister the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Israel, as well as a wide range of regional and international issues." Olmert's trip comes as the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to move forward with its nuclear program. Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," has said the country should be relocated to Alaska and that the Holocaust was a "myth." Iran is currently in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1696, which requires that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities. Iran is the only nation in the world that has called for the complete annihilation of another country. The Islamic Republic of Iran has an international trail of terror that ranges from backing groups that killed U.S. Marines and financing Hezbollah and other radical groups to training youth for suicide attacks across the globe. Iran has allowed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors only limited access to its nuclear development facilities and refused to reveal the extent of its nuclear enrichment program. Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad recently told the United Nations General Assembly, "All our nuclear activities are transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eyes of IAEA inspectors." Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has made its own decision and in the nuclear case, God-willing, with patience and power, will continue its path." In addition to the defensive war in the north in Lebanon, Israel also has been working to defend itself against increased rocket terror attacks against civilians in Israel by Hamas-backed Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. Iran provides financial and military backing to Hamas. The attacks against Israel civilians have forced Israel to carry out military operations in an effort to short-circuit the strikes, which have been almost constant since Israel evacuated all of its citizens and military from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Israel handed over control of Gaza to the Palestinians in hopes they would use the opportunity to create an independent state that would thrive side-by-side in peace next to Israel. Additionally, the Israel Defense Forces recently uncovered dozens of tunnels under the Gaza - Egypt border that Islamic terrorist groups linked to Fatah, Hamas and the Iran backed Palestine Islamic Jihad have used to smuggle weapons. Last month, Hamas publicly acknowledged taking part in creating the tunnels. "The Qassam fighters are working on top of and under the ground. Their guns are pointed and will remain directed at the one and only enemy, Israel," according to a Hamas statement mourning the death of a member of its Izz Eddeen al-Qassam Brigades, who died in an accidental explosion in one of the tunnels. Despite the terrorism, despite the rocket attacks which have landed near schools and Israel hospitals, smuggling and other violence, Israel has continued to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilian population. In May of this year Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed a joint session of the US Congress and urged the international community to tackle Iran's nuclear bid. "If we don't take Iran's bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be forced to take its nuclear aggressions seriously later," he said. "The international community will be judged by its ability to convince nations and peoples to turn their backs on hatred and zealotry." The Israel deputy defense minister suggested yesterday that Israel might be forced to launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, the clearest statement yet of such a possibility from a high-ranking Israel official. "I am not advocating an Israel pre-emptive military action against Iran and I am aware of its possible repercussions," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, a former IDF general, said in comments published Friday in The Jerusalem Post. "I consider it a last resort. But even the last resort is sometimes the only resort." "Israel Prime Minister Olmert's visit comes at a time when Americans are looking for new solutions to complicated problems in the Middle East," said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of The Israel Project, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C. "Israel, as a democracy and America's strongest ally in the Middle East, is committed to being a constructive part of those solutions."
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