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Obama to hold White House meeting with Israeli PM
President Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House later this month as the two attempt to improve their sometimes fractious relationship.
White House press secretary Jay Carney announced Wednesday evening that the president will host Netanyahu May 20 to discuss "the full range of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Israel."
Netanyahu's last visit to the White House in March 2010 was a tense one, amid a spat between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over settlement construction.
Since then, efforts to resume stalled peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have been largely fruitless.
The president and the prime minister will almost certainly mull over the proposed reconciliation agreement between Fatah, the party that controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip but is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
Netanyahu has come out strongly against the agreement, saying that he won't negotiate a peace deal with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.
"If it walks, shoots and quacks like a terrorist organization, it is a terrorist organization," he said Wednesday, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. "[Hamas] effectively has al Qaeda among them. You can wrap it up and dress it in whatever you want, but they are a terrorist organization.”
The White House, which has pressured Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, says that it is continuing to seek more details about the pact.
"What is important now is that Palestinians ensure implementation of that agreement, that its implementation advances the prospects of peace, rather than undermines those prospects," Carney said at the White House Wednesday. "We’re continuing to seek details, more information about the nature of the agreement, and we’re consulting with the parties about these very issues."
Members of Congress from both political parties, however, have said that a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah could jeopardize U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas is considered a terrorist organization.
The announcement of the meeting also comes three days after U.S. forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Netanyahu was previously scheduled to visit the U.S. to deliver an address to Congress and speak at conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
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