Biden: "Take Risks for Peace" in Mideast

(CBS/AP)  Vice President Joseph Biden told Israel Tuesday that the U.S. is willing to stand by those who will "take risks for peace."

Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was confident Israel was prepared to take such risks.

Israelis and Palestinians face a "moment of real opportunity" to make peace after agreeing to resume American-brokered talks, Biden said as he launched the highest-level visit by an Obama administration official to Israel.

Monday's announcement of indirect talks, which will be held through a U.S. mediator, broke a 14-month deadlock and marked President Obama's first substantive diplomatic achievement in the region.

But the new peace push is sure to face enormous challenges, including sharp divisions among the Palestinians and a hardline Israeli government seen as unlikely to make wide-ranging concessions.

"I think we are at a moment of real opportunity, and I think that the interests of the Israeli and Palestinian people, if everybody stops and takes a deep breath, are actually more in line than they are opposites," Biden said ahead of a meeting with Israel's president, Shimon Peres.

Biden said he hoped the beginning of indirect talks would be "a vehicle by which we can begin to allay that layer of mistrust that has built up in the last several years."

Polls show that Israelis have come to see Obama as less friendly to Israel than previous presidents and Biden's visit seemed aimed at least in part at assuaging some of those concerns, both among Israelis and their American supporters, whose backing is seen as crucial ahead of next November's congressional elections.

The vice president also offered assurances that the U.S. remained committed to Israel's well-being, saying there was "absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security, none at all." Israel has been pushing for stricter international sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program, and has refused to rule out a military strike if sanctions fail.

Iran was likely to loom large in Biden's discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later Tuesday.

Obama began his term with a push for Mideast peace, prodding Israel to freeze its construction of West Bank settlements that swallow up land the Palestinians want for a future state. But that call came just as Netanyahu took over in Israel, and though the Israeli leader scaled back settlement construction, he would not accept a full freeze.

Israel announced the authorization to construct 112 new apartments in the West Bank on Monday, despite its pledge to slow down settlement building. That move enraged the Palestinians just a day after they said they would resume the peace talks.

Obama's insistence on a total settlement freeze is seen by many in the region to have backfired by encouraging Palestinians to stake out a position that was politically untenable for Israel's hawkish government.

The Palestinians are still saying they will not talk directly to Israel unless it freezes settlement building completely.

But hours after Biden's arrival Monday, the U.S. announced the sides would begin indirect peace negotiations. The fact that the discussions will be held through a U.S. mediator attests to the estrangement between the Israelis and Palestinians, who have been speaking to each other directly, on and off, since the early 1990s.

Biden also was slated to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday before traveling to Jordan on Thursday.

[billster68]

Since when can big mouth Biden be trusted to say anything meaningful or truthful? Netanyahu knows this - - Obama's peddlars of deception (OPOD's)cannot be trusted and Biden's political blather cannot reverse the shoddy treatment of Israel by this administration. Talk is cheap - - adding the forked tongues of the OPOD's to the process will accomplish nothing. If Israel is wise it will stop settlement of the West Bank with apartments. To me it seems cruel to play with the lives of their people by encouraging them to live in this contested area. On the other hand, considering past Palastinian behavior, adding more fortifications to the West Bank is not an action of "settlement" - - it is a reasonable and prudent action.

[tsigili]

Really? How about this.....the Palestinians do not want peace, will not accept peace at any cost, and they will annihilate the Israelis, at the first opportunity.

There is an almost zero chance, for peace, in the mideast, and certainly between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

[Jingogunner]

The truth is, Amricans and all other English-speaking nations feel wretchedly insecure in the face of Islam, the most warlike and aggressive religion on the planet.We have all seen too much by way of direct threat - here in the UK we have seen muslims atacking the police, wielding placards insisting on 'Death to the British' and strident calls for enforced sharia law throughout the kingdom. I expect you have had much the same nonsense from Islam in the US which is also not reported by your media. Our respective governemnts have done nothing to address either this reality or its consequent fears; they have avoided, procrastinated, blatantly lied to themselves and their electorates, refused to acknowledge the unmistakeable evidence of their own direct experience and have, therefore, betrayed the people they are sworn to protect. Scanners ands sealed borders will not cut it, my brother, it is far too late for that. The global emergency calls for immediate global action to 'out' Islam as the religion of fear, hatred and death, the immediate mobilization of all media and military forces to protect our respective national interests worldwide in the light of overwhelkming evidence that Islam seeks nothing but world dictatorship, a world theocracy where opponents are flogged, stoned, hung, tortured, persecuted and where perfect obedience is the only means of a truly mean and hungry survival. Awake, America!The enemy is within your gates!

[mrjustice1]

yes Jingorunner,

Good wake-up call/message for all who are threatened by religious madmen.

It's time to join forces out of our having no alternative!

BTW, In America, it's 'hanged' as applies to people, and hung for other items, such as clothing. ;-)

[Turbidite]

Your fear, paranoia and ignorance are badly misplaced. The enemy within our gates is the 1.5 million violent domestic criminals, recorded by the Department of Justice last year, were responsible for nearly 17,000 murders last year, or 165,000 murders in the past ten years, 1998-2008. Auto fatalities were in excess of 1 million over the last ten years. The total troops that have died in the entire Iraqi Freedom and Enduring freedom have been 5,374 in ten years. Add the 2,794 civilian deaths in the 9/11 attacks and you have a total of 8,168. You are pointing the finger in the wrong direction.

[U_S_Drug_Addict]

This country railed against apparteid in south africa,
condemns countries for their human rights violations.
yet when the opportunity to act against a zionist welfare state practicing both. they bend over and take it with a smile.

[ajvw]

Biden: "Take Risks for Peace" in Mideast

Biden takes a risk everytime he opens his mouth