Netanyahu to Tell Obama: Keep Focus on Iran, Release Pollard>

Boruch Shubert - Jewish Political News & Updates - October 1, 2014

Senior Israeli officials have revealed that Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold a meeting with U.S. President Obama on Wednesday, at which the PM will tell Obama that the international war against the terrorist group Islamic State must not be offset by concessions to Iran in the ongoing negotiations over its nuclear program.

Netanyahu also informed United States Jewish leaders on Tuesday that he plans to raise with Obama the possibility of bringing Arab states into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

According to Haaretz, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said Netanyahu wants the intimate get-together to focus first and foremost on the Iranian issue and then on Islamic State, and to save the Palestinian issue for the end.

In a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday, Netanyahu continued his verbal barrage against Hamas, claiming that the difference between the Palestinian group and Islamic State is only that ISIS "beheads people" while Hamas "shoots them in the head."

The prime minister touched on Iran in his speech, saying, "We have to stop ISIS but we have to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons," adding that the Iranian people are being oppressed by their own government.

Regarding the imminent meeting with President Obama, a senior Netanyahu advisor revealed to Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu intends to raise a request for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who is currently in his 29th year of incarceration in an American cell on charges of spying on the U.S. for Israel.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu intends to raise the topic of Pollard in his meeting with the U.S. president and to request his release, as has been done previous times," the source stated.

Later on Tuesday Netanyahu is set to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the post-war situation in the Gaza Strip and the implementation of a plan for the Palestinian-run territory's reconstruction. The Prime Minister will also speak with world media.

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