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The Israeli Prime Minister's Visit that Wasn't
(New York Times) Ron Dermer - Re: the New York Times' editorial of March 14, "Mr. Netanyahu's Lost Opportunities," Prime Minister Netanyahu didn't "cancel" his meeting with President Obama, as your editorial suggested, because no meeting was set. Israel had checked into the possibility of a meeting as part of a potential visit to Washington to address the AIPAC policy conference, but I personally told a White House official that there was a good chance that the prime minister would not visit the U.S. The Prime Minister's Office officially notified the administration that Mr. Netanyahu would not be going to the U.S. before notifying the media. In addition, your editorial asserts that Mr. Netanyahu never showed any "serious willingness" to advance Middle East peace, yet his repeated requests for negotiations without preconditions have been consistently spurned by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Your editorial also supports a reckless Security Council resolution that would set out the terms of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Such a resolution would reward Palestinian terrorism, harden Palestinian negotiating positions for decades to come, and provide a tailwind to efforts to delegitimize Israel. The writer is Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.