Biden defends outreach to Iran in AIPAC speech

Vice President Biden told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Tuesday morning that Israel remains the administration’s “most treasured ally” while defending diplomatic overtures to Iran.

Saying that the election of President Obama was a call by Americans “to change … the trajectory that the world was on,” Biden said there is “one enduring essential principle that will not change, and that is our commitment to the peace and security of the state of Israel.”

{mosads}“That is not negotiable,” Biden said. “That is not a matter of change.”

But Biden stressed that American foreign policy would change, as he sought to reassure the packed AIPAC crowd at the Washington Convention Center that those changes wouldn’t endanger the security of Israel.

“All the good intentions of the last decade have not resulted in a more secure, more stable Middle East,” Biden said.

Biden added that Obama had a “personal connection to the Zionist idea.” In the introduction of the vice president, the crowd was reminded several times that Biden has called himself a Zionist.

“There will always be a place for the Jews of the world to go and that place always must be Israel,” the vice president said to a standing ovation.

While noting that “a nuclear-armed Iran risks an arms race in the region,” Biden conceded that “what will work remains to be seen” in stemming the threat.

“That’s why we will pursue direct, principled democracy with Iran,” Biden said, adding that the U.S. “will approach Iran initially in the spirit of mutual respect.”

Going to talks first will give the U.S. greater leverage, Biden said.

“If our efforts to address this problem through engagement are not successful, we have greater international support to consider other options,” he said. “We must sometimes act alone, but it’s always stronger when we act in unison.”

Biden also stressed the importance of a two-state solution — a key issue in talks later Tuesday with Israeli President Shimon Peres and with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 18 — receiving a mixed reaction from the crowd.

The road map “can be achieved,” Biden said. “The fact that peace has not occurred does not mean that peace cannot occur.

“Israelis and Palestinians have sufficient common interests to bring this goal within reach.”

Biden called for the “unconditional release” of Gilad Shalit, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier still held by Hamas in Gaza after being kidnapped in June 2006, and called on Arab countries to aid the peace process.

“Now is the time for Arab states to make meaningful gestures to show the Israeli leadership and the people that the promise of ending Israel’s isolation in the region is real,” the vice president said.

{mosads}Biden wrapped up his address by saying the delay of the peace process was “not an option.”

“The path we’ve been on in recent years will not result in security or prosperity for Israel or the Palestinians,” Biden said.

Biden was preceded at AIPAC by his successor as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who called America’s commitment to Israel “a matter of gut and heart.”

“Israel is more than just an ally and fellow democracy,” Kerry said, noting that “even a few Jews from Boston, Mass., have all come to Israel’s shores.”

Kerry said he met with Noam Shalit, the father of Gilad Shalit, on his visit to D.C. last week. “As a parent I share his anguish, but I am confident that the day will come when Gilad is returned to his family and the country he loves,” Kerry said, adding that he’d raised the IDF’s soldiers case in talks with Egypt and Syria.

Kerry also broached the topic of diplomatic outreach to Iran.

“When we say a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable, we mean it,” Kerry said. “President Obama wants to talk with Iran and I believe it is important to give that strategy a chance.

“Outreach alone is not a strategy,” he added. “If diplomacy is to work, it must be backed by the prospect of tough, escalating, multilateral sanctions strong enough to actually change behavior.”

On the subject of Middle East peace, Kerry called on Israel to freeze new settlement activity that he said “undercut[s] President [Mahmoud] Abbas and strengthen[s] Hamas.” He also called on Arab states to start treating Israel “like a normal country” and halt “poisonous rhetoric” against the Jewish state from Arabic media outlets and pulpits.

“You cannot make peace out of one side of your mouth and preach hate out of the other,” Kerry said. “The window of opportunity for a two-state solution is fast closing.”

AIPAC spokesman Joshua Block told The Hill that at the conclusion of the three-day conference Tuesday, the pro-Israel group had 515 lobbying appointments scheduled on Capitol Hill.